From hachew at gmail.com Mon Aug 1 22:56:54 2005 From: hachew at gmail.com (Huibin Amelia Chew) Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 00:56:54 -0400 Subject: [m2c] Costs of Iraq War - trauma, violence vs. women Message-ID: important article. note references to rise in domestic violence, sexual violence. peace, -amee -- http://www.quakerhouse.org/costs-of-war-01.htm COPING WITH THE PERSONAL & FAMILY COSTS OF WAR A special report by "Joanna," a Quaker social worker/therapist whose practice is located near a large Army Base (More resources on this topic are at the end of the article.) Since the soldiers began returning from the Iraq war at the turn of the year, my therapy practice has been inundated with a variety of problems that come from the soldiers' experiences in this war. Chuck asked me to write about what I am seeing. One result that all therapists expected was PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Symptoms may include nightmares, flashbacks (even reenactment), disturbed sleep and hyper vigilance. This can be caused by a variety of incidents, from life threatening experience for the soldiers themselves to the experience of a good friend or buddy being injured or killed. But many soldiers I've seen have PTSD symptoms due to the inhuman things that they had to do in this war: One was forced by his superior to run over a woman and child trying to stop a convoy on a road where many convoys were attacked. Another shot into a crowd that contained women and children and saw children die. Another was attacked by a kid he had befriended and given food to; then he had to kill the boy to save his own life. One NCO had nightmares of watching two of his soldiers being blown up when they picked up what turned out to be a live bomb, on the orders of an officer who was collecting booty for his "trophy room." This NCO, a career soldier, then lost faith in the military when he was forced to lie about the incident to protect the officer. Even jobs that some thought were "safe" from direct fire or war were not safe from this type of experience. One soldier in communications was stringing lines when he and his partner ran into an Iraqi soldier in a bunker. They hollered at him to get out, but he didn't. Although he didn't actually raise his weapon to them, he continued holding it loosely, and the soldier shot him, again under orders. Then he was wracked by guilt that the Iraqi soldier hadn't understood, might have been saved if he had acted differently, that the Iraqi was someone's son, someone's brother. but he didn't. PTSD caused by this type of thing seems to be more difficult to treat, more difficult to recover from than the usual war experience of fire fights, because the soldiers feel they have lost an important part of themselves and fear that they are damaged permanently by behaving against their core beliefs. The violence of war creates violence at home when soldiers return. They most noticeable evidence of this is the dramatic increase in domestic violence, even the killings of spouses, since the soldiers started returning. The soldiers tell me that the killing of spouses at military bases is at an all time high, but I have no concrete evidence to this effect, and the Army is pretty quiet about it. But I am sure seeing a lot of domestic violence in the couples here. Connected to this in my mind is the anger. Most of the soldiers returning from Iraq or Afghanistan are angry. As a therapist, I have found many "reasons" for the anger - anger at the administration for getting them into such a war; anger at the Iraqis for trying to kill the soldiers who came to save them; anger at people over them for asking them to do dangerous and sometimes useless activities; anger at the administration for not just letting the soldiers go ahead and "finish" the war, etc. But above all, anger appears to be a necessity to staying alive in Iraq. It is part of the ever vigilant watching, not knowing where the next attack will come from. However, they cannot simply turn off the anger when they return. Spouses and children often complain that another person returned from the war, that they do not even recognize this angry, short tempered person who seems to have lost capacity for humor, empathy and love. They come to me for marital or family therapy, but I often have to see the soldier alone first to work on the anger. Even if they were not clinically traumatized or meet the definition of PTSD, the experience of being a soldier in Iraq seems to be traumatic on an emotional or spiritual level. This is also isolating in that the soldiers feel that their spouses, wives, families do not understand them and stick with their war buddies who shared the experience. Some individuals are able to let go the anger, get over it faster than others. Some still hang onto the anger and are now being redeployed to Iraq. I am frightened of what they will be like when they return next time. More Addictions?Women At Risk One reaction to the war came as quite a surprise to me ? a dramatic increase in sexual addiction. A year or more deployment is a long time to be away from family, wives and girlfriends. There are few opportunities for sexual encounters in Iraq. So many soldiers got onto the internet for pornographic sites and satisfied their needs with masturbation. But then they became addicted, which means that they become totally absorbed in their own orgasm to the detriment of interaction with another. This was not an area of expertise for me, so I have had to learn rapidly. All addictions end up in social withdrawal, but sex addiction begins with it. The addict cannot have a meaningful emotional relationship much less sexual relationship. Recovery from this takes time and therapy. It begins with the acknowledgment that the individual is addicted, and this is a difficult first step for many. We are trying to get a Sex Addicts Anonymous group started in this area to help. But many marriages are ending before the soldiers have been treated. There are reports in the press and by the soldiers of American female soldiers in Iraq being raped by American male soldiers. I have no idea of the frequency of this and have not treated any women who suffered rape. But I am seeing numerous female soldiers who hated Iraq in large part because of the way they were treated by American men, and Iraqi men too ? constantly stared at and watched. As I understand them, it is like being treated as an object all the time. One woman walked past a mess tent and described what it felt like when everyone in the tent (males) stopped talking and turned to watch her pass by in silence. She was in her BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform), not dressed or outfitted provocatively. Most of the women I have seen complain of unwanted approaches, close to force, by American soldiers, often men of higher rank. When they complained, nothing happened. So the women took care of each other, all going to the bathroom with one person who needed to go for her protection. One woman who is readying for redeployment told me she is taking several cans of mace with her. This experience has also been felt by female officers. One West Point graduate said that it changed her life, that she had decided to leave the Army after having planned a career in it. Indeed, she felt that she would require years to be able to trust men again, as well as herself. She was in charge of a detail to rebuild something, maybe a school. They had Iraqis working with them. But the Iraqi men refused to acknowledge her orders, so she had to have a male NCO or even private instruct them although she was the one who spoke the language. She reports getting angrier than she has ever been in her life, even fantasizing about shooting these unarmed Iraqis in her fury. This scared her and made her realize how dangerous the situation was for her mental health. Families At Risk Too Families have been damaged in more ways than I can describe. Many young soldiers marry in haste before being sent to war. They fantasize about wife and home their year away and carry on romantic communications by phone email and regular mail. When they return, they find an all too real scenario ? a wife who may have spent all of their extra duty pay or had an affair or had a baby. Even career soldiers with previous deployments to Korea, Germany, etc. find this return much more difficult than previous ones. As sad as the break up of marriages is, the very worst thing I see is the deployment of both parents and the child or children being sent to various relatives, often separated. One mom who just returned from Iraq brought in her three year old daughter because the child was totally out of control and ignored her completely. Well, her behavior was understandable. To the child, this was a complete stranger who just picked her up at gramma's and started telling her what to do. This child had spent less than two months of her life with both parents and less than 8 months with either parent separately. She had been raised by what must have been a bewildering constellation to her ? mom and dad, then mom, than gramma, then dad for a month before he decided he couldn't cope alone, then an aunt, then gramma again, then another aunt, then gramma and finally, mom. That child probably hasn't had a chance to form normal attachments necessary for emotional growth. As I began to educate the mom on attachment needs for child development, she cried and realized what damage she and her husband had caused their daughter. She decided to try to get out of the Army, but I don't know what became of her after I saw them the few times we had approval for. The child calmed down, had gotten better. But I still dream of her ? this is the therapist's PTSD or what is called secondary trauma. As a Friend, I have always been opposed to war because I believed that we do not have the right to extinguish that piece of God in others. After my experience as a therapist for soldiers, I understand George Fox's opposition to war much better. He pointed out the damage to the self, the soul, that occurs when we take another life. We humans pay a terrible personal price when we do that. I pray that these soldiers can recover their humanity, their belief in themselves and their God. -- "There are plenty of women in Fallujah who have testified they were raped by American soldiers... They are nearby the secondary school for girls inside Fallujah. When people came back to Fallujah the first time they found so many girls who were totally naked and they had been killed." -- Mohammed Abdulla, executive director of the Study Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Fallujah, quoted in http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000251.php From BICDance at aol.com Thu Aug 4 19:36:14 2005 From: BICDance at aol.com (BICDance at aol.com) Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 21:36:14 EDT Subject: [m2c] Fountainhead: Black International Cinema Berlin Germany 2005-6!! Message-ID: <143.4a6bf7ae.30241c8e@aol.com> FOUNTAINHEAD? TANZ THEATRE e ? LETTER, Berlin/Germany July 2005 __________________________________________________________________ FOUNTAINHEAD? TANZ THEATRE INSPIRATION - CREATION - FULFILLMENT PERSONIFIED INSPIRATION - KREATION - ERF?LLUNG PERSONIFIZIERT __________________________________________________________________ Table of Content/Inhalt __________________________________________________________________ 1. XX. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN 2005 AWARDS __________________________________________________________________ 2. INSIGHT: XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 FASHION SHOW & FESTIVAL IMPRESSIONS PHOTOGRAPHS/FOTOGRAFIEN: _http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_framese t.htm_ (http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_frameset.htm) __________________________________________________________________ 3. XXI. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN/PARIS/ST. LOUIS, MO. 2006 ENTRY FORM INFORMATION _http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC06/HTML/bic06_frameset.htm_ (http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC06/HTML/bic06_frameset.htm) __________________________________________________________________ 4. PART XXXIX Grownupism! 1 Day, When I Grow Up! Erwachsensein! Eines Tages, wenn ich erwachsen werde! __________________________________________________________________ 5. THE COLLEGIUM FORUM & TELEVISION PROGRAM LIVE - JULY 17, 2005, BERLIN Berlin/Magdeburg/Wolfsburg/Trier/Kaiserslautern __________________________________________________________________ _http://members.aol.com/bicdance_ (http://members.aol.com/bicdance) _www.fountainhead-tanz-theatre.de_ (http://www.fountainhead-tanz-theatre.de) _www.black-international-cinema.com_ (http://www.black-international-cinema.com) Please send replies to / Bitte senden Sie Antworten an _bicdance at aol.com_ (mailto:bicdance at aol.com) __________________________________________________________________ 1. XX. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN 2005 AWARDS 1. Best film/video by a Black filmmaker. 500 YEARS LATER Director: Owen 'Alik Shahadah Documentary, Color, 102 min. U.S.A./UK 2005 English JEPARDEE! Director: Christopher Marlon Narrative, Color, 24 min. U.S.A. 2004 English 2. Best film/video on matters relating to the Black Experience/Marginalized People. CONTINUOUS JOURNEY Director: Ali Kazimi Documentary, Color, 87 min. Canada 2004 English/Punjabi with English subtitles BLACK STUDIES, USA Director: 'Niyi Coker, Jr. Documentary, B/W, 32 min. U.S.A. 2005 English A KILLING IN CHOCTAW Director: Chike C. Nwoffiah Documentary, Color, 91 min. U.S.A. 2004 English 3. Best film/video by a German filmmaker or a filmmaker residing in Germany. PAPA AFRIKA - ON THE ROAD TO THE ROOTS Director: Otu Tetteh Documentary, Color, 50 min. Ghana/Germany German/English, German and English subtitles JOHANNESBURG MARCH 2004 ? Five People - Five Interviews - Five Routes - Five Jobs - Five Days Director: Johannes Buss Documentary/Experimental, Color, 51 min. South Africa 2004 English 4. Best children's film/video. RUBBER SOLES Director: Christine Turner Narrative, Color, 10 min. U.S.A. 2005 English 5. Best film/video in the Fine Arts Discipline. CARMEN AND GEOFFREY Directors: Nick Doob & Linda Atkinson Documentary, Color, 79 min. U.S.A. 2005 English THE ART OF VIY? DIBA - THE INTELLIGENT HAND Director: Claudine Pommier Documentary, Color, 52 min. Canada/Senegal 2003 French with English subtitles THEMES Directors: Dan Boord & Luis Valdovino Documentary/Experimental, Color, 29 min. U.S.A. 2004 English/Spanish with English subtitles 6. Best film/video documentary production. LA RAIZ OLVIDADA - THE FORGOTTEN ROOT Director: Rafael Rebollar Documentary, Color, 50 min. Mexico 2002 Spanish with English subtitles AFROARGENTINOS - AFROARGENTINES Directors: Jorge Fortes & Diego Ceballos Documentary, Color, 75 min. Argentina 2002 Spanish with English subtitles SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT UPRIVER IN TIME Director: Andr? Dryansky Documentary, Color, 52 min. The Netherlands 2004 Saramaka/Sranan/Tongo/Dutch with English subtitles THE CAGE Director: Damon Russell Documentary, Color, 70 min. U.S.A. 2004 English GOMSHODEH DAR SHARG - LOST IN EAST Director: Farid Mirkhani Narrative, Color, 76 min. Iran 2004 Turkish with English subtitles RALPH BUNCHE: A BLACK SCHOLAR INVESTIGATES COLONIALISM Director: William Greaves Documentary, Color, B/W, 25 min. U.S.A. 2003 English STORY OF A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY Director: Khalo Matabane Documentary, Color, 73 min. South Africa/Canada 2004 English ST?RKER ALS DIE ANGST - STRONGER THAN FEAR Director: Ulrike Westermann Documentary, Color, 52 min. Germany 2004 English/German/French with English subtitles THE NEW DISCIPLES Director: Colin Sinclair Narrative, Color, 36 min. England 2004 English AU PAIR CHOCOLAT Director: Benson McGrath & Abigail McGrath Narrative, Color, 87 min. U.S.A. 2004 English __________________________________________________________________ 2. INSIGHT: XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 Dear colleagues and friends of Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre, We are pleased to report a very successful XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005. We were honored with the presence of guests and filmmakers, fashion designers and models, from the U.S.A., U.K., France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Berlin and elsewhere. In addition, filmmakers and guests were interviewed in the cinema, by co-founder/director/moderator Prof. Donald Muldrow Griffith during The Collegium Television Program Berlin, Trier, Kaiserslautern, Magdeburg and Wolfsburg. The Collegium Television Program is also produced and directed by Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre. A large and responsive audience gathered to screen films and network. The 20th anniversary of the Black International Cinema Berlin was a wonderful, exhausting and fulfilling experience and we look forward to sharing the XXI. Black International Cinema Berlin, Paris, St. Louis, Mo. 2006 festival with all of you, next year! Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre 2005 XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 has been granted by UNESCO the official status of ?Associated Project to the UNESCO Slave Route Project?. FESTIVAL FEEDBACK ?Hi, Donald, it?s Damon. I just wanted to let you know that I had an amazing time in Berlin and I really enjoyed your festival. There were some really great films and I was able to make connections with some really inspiring people. Thanks again and I hope to see you next year with another film.? Damon Russell (?The Cage?) ?Donald: Again, many thanks for such a wonderful experience.? ?Niyi Coker (? Black Studies, U.S.A.?) ?Dear Donald Griffith, dear members of the Fountainhead team, we would like to thank you for the great film festival you organized.? Greetings from Lars Busch and Otu Tetteh. (?Papa Afrika?) ?Donald, thanks for the invite. We had a great time. Berlin is a beautiful city. Best of luck with your future festivals. I would love to come back and visit some day. Take care.? Carl Ray (?A Killing in Choctaw?) XX. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN 2005 FASHION SHOW & FESTIVAL IMPRESSIONS PHOTOGRAPHS/FOTOGRAFIEN: _http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_framese t.htm_ (http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_frameset.htm) IM BLICK: XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 Liebe KollegInnen und FreundInnen des Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre, Wir freuen uns, ?ber ein sehr erfolgreiches XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 zu berichten. Wir wurden geehrt mit der Anwesenheit von G?sten und FilmemacherInnen, Modedesignern und Models, aus den USA, Gro?britannien, Frankreich, Belgien, den Niederlanden, aus Berlin und anderswo. Auch wurden FilmemacherInnen und G?ste von Ko-Gr?nder/Direktor/Moderator Prof. Donald Muldrow Griffith w?hrend der Sendung The Collegium Television Program Berlin, Trier, Kaiserslautern, Magdeburg und Wolfsburg interviewt. The Collegium Television Program wird ebenfalls von Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre produziert und geleitet. Ein gro?es und aufgeschlossenes Publikum kam zusammen, um Filme zu sehen und neue Kontakte zu kn?pfen. Das 20. Jubil?um des Black International Cinema Berlin war eine wundervolle, ersch?pfende und erf?llende Erfahrung und wir freuen uns darauf, mit Euch allen das XXI. Black International Cinema Berlin, Paris, St. Louis, Mo., 2006 Festival zu verbringen, im n?chsten Jahr! Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre 2005 XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 wurde von der UNESCO der offizielle Status ?Associated Project to the UNESCO Slave Route Project? erteilt. R?CKMELDUNGEN ZUM FESTIVAL ?Hi, Donald, hier ist Damon. Ich wollte Dir nur sagen, dass ich eine erstaunliche Zeit in Berlin hatte und das Festival hat mir wirklich sehr viel Freude gemacht. Es gab einige wirklich grossartige Filme und ich konnte Verbindungen zu wirklich inspirierenden Menschen herstellen. Danke nochmal und ich hoffe, ich sehe Dich n?chstes Jahr mit einem neuen Film.? Damon Russell (?The Cage ?) ?Donald: Nochmal vielen Dank f?r diese wundervolle Erfahrung.? ?Niyi Coker ( ?Black Studies, U.S.A.?) ?Lieber Donald Griffith, liebe Mitglieder vom Fountainhead Team, wir m?chten uns bei Euch f?r das grossartige Filmfestival, das Ihr organisiert, bedanken. ? Gr?sse von Lars Busch und Otu Tetteh. (?Papa Afrika?) ?Donald, danke f?r die Einladung. Wir hatten eine grossartige Zeit. Berlin ist eine wundersch?ne Stadt. Viel Gl?ck f?r Deine zuk?nftigen Festivals. Ich w?rde gerne irgendwann auf Besuch zur?ckkommen. Machs gut.? Carl Ray (?A Killing in Choctaw?) FASHION SHOW & FESTIVAL IMPRESSIONS PHOTOGRAPHS/FOTOGRAFIEN: _http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_framese t.htm_ (http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_frameset.htm) __________________________________________________________________ 3. XXI. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN/PARIS/ST. LOUIS, MO. 2006 ENTRY FORM INFORMATION _http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC06/HTML/bic06_frameset.htm_ (http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC06/HTML/bic06_frameset.htm) __________________________________________________________________ 4. PART XXXIX Grownupism! 1 Day, When I Grow Up! So, as usual, I wuz sittin? an? stinkin? ?bout ev?rythin? in general an? nothin? in particular, when the dragon-teecher intruded into my space an? asked me a question, I didn?t know the answer too! The dragon smiled an? sed, ?I could tell by your eyes with the far away gaze and smile, you were not paying attention! School requires concentration, discipline and constant mental application, except during your free time and this is clearly not your free time ? Mister Star Gazer!? Wow, she reely shot me down an? now I gotta do more homework! She probably had it in mind to do me in with homework anyway an? wuz jes waitin? for her big fat chance! O.K., now I gotta write ?bout a guy named Galloway!? First I thought he wuz a basketball player, but no such luck! Seems sum British guy opened new doors in peeple?s heds, with blocked brains in Washington D.C.? O.K., like Papa sez, ?some of those politicians need Ajax cleaner to wipe out the drudge in their brain an? try to figure out what to do to help someone, besides themselves!? I think Papa has polickticians on the low end of his ladder of good peeple! ?Not a Mandela among them,? Papa alwayz sez. So, no Mandelas, but that?s not my project. I need to know ?bout a guy named Galloway from the U.K.! Kinda rhymes, doesn?t it? I?m a poet an? don?t even know it! Kool, but whut ?bout Galloway? When in doubt or need, Granma an? Papa alwayz cum to my homework rescue ? so, here I go! Seems like Granma an? Papa thought pretty high of this no basketball player, named Galloway. Papa sez, ?if this man were representative of our leading politicians, this country would at least have clear answers to some of our problems, rather than the mud talk we always hear, at least lately!? Granma sez, ?well, he didn?t stop Buster Blair from going to war, but at least he offered a clear and truer vision of what the Iraq situation was and is all about! So you read his speech and then write about his telling the truth and trying to tell people about reality and not keep playing Disney World with us, like ol? Stetson Hat and his crew keep doing.? Wow, strong stuff, but I got all the answers I need for the dragon an? with the Galloway speech on my paper an? Granma?s an? Papa?s wurds, I?m gonna reach for the sky! Ha, ha, look out dragon, here I cum! But first, I gotta rest a while So, g?nite. Call me Mr. Information! I love you. Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre Copyright, July 2005 PART XXXIX Erwachsensein! Eines Tages, wenn ich erwachsen werde! Also, wie ?blich war ich am Sitz?n und Stink?n ?ba alles im Allgemeinen und nix im Besonderen, als die Drachenlehrerin in meine Sph?re eindrang und mir ? ne Frage stellte, und die Antwort wusst? ich auch nich?! Der Drachen l?chelte und sagte: ?Ich konnte an deinen Augen, mit dem starren Blick in die Ferne und dem L?cheln, sehen, dass du nicht aufgepasst hast! Schule erfordert Konzentration, Disziplin und geistige Mitarbeit, au?er w?hrend deiner Freizeit und dies ist sicher nicht deine Freizeit ? Herr Sternengucker!? Wow, die hat mich echt erwischt und jetz? muss ich mehr Hausaufgaben mach? n. Wahrscheinlich hat sie sowieso schon ?dran gedacht, mir mit Hausarbeiten eine ?rein zu dr?cken, und nur auf ihre fette Chance gewartet! Okay, jetz? soll ich ?ba ?n Typen namens Galloway schreib?n!? Erst dachte ich, der is? ?n Basketballspieler, aber Pech gehabt! Scheint so, als ob so?n britischer Typ neue T?ren ge?ffnet hat in den K?pfen der Menschen mit blockierten Gehirnen in Washington D.C.? Okay, wie Papa sagt: ?Einige dieser Politiker brauchen Ajaxreiniger, um die Verstopfung aus ihrem Gehirn zu sp?len und zu versuchen herauszufinden, was zu tun ist, um jemandem zu helfen, au?er sich selbst!? Ich glaub?, f?r Papa steh?n Politicker auf der untersten Stufe der guten Menschen! ?Nicht ein Mandela unter ihnen,? sagt Papa imma. Also, keine Mandelas, aber das is? nich? meine Aufgabe. Ich muss was wissen, und das jetz? gleich, ?ba ?n Typen namens Galloway aussem Vereinigten K?nigreich! Reimt sich irgendwie, nich? wahr? Ich schreib? ?n Gedicht und wei? es nicht! Kool, aber was is? mit Galloway? Ob im Zweifel oder in ?ner Notlage, sind imma Oma und Papa als meine Retter der Hausaufgaben da ? also, hier komm? ich! Scheint so, als ob Oma und Papa ziemlich gro?e St?cke von diesem Nicht? Basketballspieler namens Galloway halt?n. Papa sagt: ?Wenn dieser Mann repr?sentativ f?r unsere f?hrenden Politiker w?re, h?tte dieses Land zumindest klare Antworten auf einige unserer Probleme, anders als das schlammige Gerede, das wir immer h?ren, jedenfalls k?rzlich!? Oma sagt: ?Nun, er hat den Burschen Blair nicht davon abgehalten, in den Krieg zu ziehen, aber wenigstens bietet er eine klare und wahrhaftigere Vorstellung davon, was die Situation im Irak war und ?berhaupt ist! Also liest du seine Rede und schreibst dar?ber, wie er die Wahrheit erz?hlt und versucht, den Leuten die Realit?t zu vermitteln und nicht weiter Disney World mit uns spielt, wie olle Texashut und seine Mannschaft das weiterhin tun. ? Wow, hartes Zeug, aber ich hab? alle Antworten, die ich f?r den Drachen brauch?, und mit der Rede von Galloway in meiner Arbeit und Omas und Papas Worten, erreich? ich das H?chste! Ha, ha, sieh? dich vor, Drachen, hier komm? ich! Aber erst muss ich mich ?ne Weile ausruh?n Also, ?Nacht. Nennt mich Mister Information! Hab? euch lieb. Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre Copyright, July 2005 __________________________________________________________________ 5. THE COLLEGIUM TELEVISION PROGRAM BERLIN LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE UPCOMING EDITION: JULY 17, 2005 STATE OF AFFAIRS Guests: Ulrike Roth/Interculturalist Yonas Endrias/Political Scientist ARTS CALENDAR MISE-EN-SC?NE Visual Reality Show Choreographer: Colin Sinclair __________________________________________________________________ THE COLLEGIUM FORUM & TELEVISION PROGRAM Berlin/ Magdeburg/Wolfsburg/Trier/Kaiserslautern and other cosmopolitan cities und andere kosmopolitische St?dte produced & directed by/produziert und geleitet von Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre/Black International Cinema/ Cultural Zephyr e.V. BERLIN Every Sunday jeden Sonntag 9.00 - 10.00 pm 21.00 - 22.00 Uhr Offener Kanal Berlin Voltastr. 5 13355 Berlin-Wedding presenting / pr?sentiert wird Cinema / Discussion / Arts Calendar Filme / Diskussion / Kunstkalender for program information, please contact: Programminformationen bitte unter: 0049 (0)30-782 16 21 0049 (0)30-75 46 09 46 __________________________________________________________________ THE COLLEGIUM TELEVISION PROGRAM BERLIN LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE THE COLLEGIUM 2005: August 21 September 18 October 16 November 20 December 18 at 9.00 p.m. / 21.00 Uhr __________________________________________________________________ Mottoes: "I may not make it if I try, but I damn sure won?t if I don?t..." Oscar Brown Jr. "Mankind will either find a way or make one." C.P. Snow ?Whatever you do..., be cool!" Joseph Louis Turner ?Yes, I can...!? Sammy Davis Jr. ?Fountainhead?, July 2005 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/html Size: 21907 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/margins-to-centre/attachments/20050804/ca8fd887/attachment.txt From bicdance at aol.com Sun Aug 14 22:42:34 2005 From: bicdance at aol.com (Fountainhead Tanz Theatre/Black International Cinema/The Collegium - Forum & Television Program Berlin/Cultural Zephyr e.V.) Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 06:42:34 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [m2c] Fountainhead e-Letter, Berlin/Germany, August 2005 Message-ID: <24645424.1124080954642.JavaMail.root@p15173073> FOUNTAINHEAD? TANZ THEATRE e ? LETTER, Berlin/Germany August 2005 __________________________________________________________________ FOUNTAINHEAD? TANZ THEATRE INSPIRATION - CREATION - FULFILLMENT PERSONIFIED INSPIRATION - KREATION - ERF?LLUNG PERSONIFIZIERT __________________________________________________________________ Table of Content/Inhalt __________________________________________________________________ 1. PART XL Grownupism! 1 Day, When I Grow Up! Erwachsensein! Eines Tages, Wenn Ich Erwachsen Werde! __________________________________________________________________ 2. THE COLLEGIUM FORUM & TELEVISION PROGRAM LIVE - AUGUST 21, 2005, BERLIN Berlin/Magdeburg/Wolfsburg/Kaiserslautern __________________________________________________________________ 3. ISD BUNDESTREFFEN 2005 __________________________________________________________________ 4. XX. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN 2005 AWARDS __________________________________________________________________ 5. XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 FASHION SHOW & FESTIVAL IMPRESSIONS PHOTOGRAPHS/FOTOGRAFIEN: http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_frameset.htm __________________________________________________________________ 6. XXI. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN/PARIS/ST. LOUIS, MO. 2006 ENTRY FORM INFORMATION http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC06/HTML/bic06_frameset.htm __________________________________________________________________ http://members.aol.com/bicdance www.fountainhead-tanz-theatre.de www.black-international-cinema.com Please send replies to / Bitte senden Sie Antworten an bicdance at aol.com __________________________________________________________________ 1. PART XL Grownupism! 1 Day, When I Grow Up! So, I wuz sittin? an? stinkin? ?bout life in general an? wond?rin? ?bout sum things in particular. Here I am, tryin? to enjoy the summer sunshine an? birds an? trees an? things an? other peeple are into all kinds of scary stuff! Man, the dragon-teecher is right agin, when she says, ?you can never totally rest when you?re dealing with the needs, wants and wishes of people and what some of them will do to get what they want!? That?s one thing I?ll say ?bout the dragon, she?s got a terrible habit of bein? right, all the time! My father tol? me once to look up the wurd "omniscient" so I culd describe the dragon-teecher brain in grown up wurds! Well, it took me a lotta hours jes to figure out how to find a hard spellin? word like omniscient in the diktionary! ?Course, I did take a few breaks while lookin?! Nevermind, I got it now, but I hadda reely work for it! It ain?t easy tryin? to be smart! It kinda makes me nervous when I turn on the T.V. to look at my shows an? they git interrupted with news ?bout bombings an? stuff! It?s reely scary! Granma sez, ?if it isn?t one thing, then it?s another! People just can?t seem to get in step with one another!? I wuz lookin? at a picture of the earth in a book the other day from space an? it looks so big an? you can?t even see any peeple on it! Man, with all that room to move ?round in an? stuff, you?d think folks culd leave other folks alone, if they culdn?t git along! You know, take sum an? leave sum! But I guess we gotta lotta greedy gut peeple on this earth an? maybe that?s why a lotta them are so fat! Greedy guts tryin? to swallow ev?rythin? an? ev?rybody! On the other hand, sum of ?em are skinny too! Man, that kinda actin? up stuff is just not the way for us to git along with one another. An? that sure won?t work with ?peace on earth good will to men.? Maybe that only counts at xmas time? So, I?m jes gonna cool it an? keep hopin? things?ll git better soon? Or at least git better before I go back to skool after the vakation, otherwise, all these trubbles is gonna cause me trubble! ?Cause the dragon-teechers gonna make me an? all my pardnuhs write ?bout all this stuff! Man, that?s reason enuf to make me want all these trubbles to cool it ? quick! Well, maybe sum other reasons too, but first things first! This hot wether makes me sleepy ? G?nite ? I luv u. G?nite. Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre Copyright, August 2005 PART XL Erwachsensein! Eines Tages, wenn ich erwachsen werde! Also, ich war am Sitz?n und Stink?n ?ba das Leben im Allgemein? und wunderte mich ?ba ?n paar Dinge im Besonder?n. Hier bin ich nun, vasuch? den Sommersonnenschein zu genie??n und die V?gel und B?ume und so und and?re Leute veranstalt?n alles m?gliche gruselige Zeugs! Mann, die Drachenlehrerin hat schon wieder recht, wenn sie sagt: ?Du kannst dich nie v?llig ausruhen, wenn du mit den Bed?rfnissen, Forderungen und W?nschen von Leuten zu tun hast, und mit dem, was einige tun w?rden, um zu bekommen, was sie wollen!? Eine Sache kann ich ?ba den Drachen sag?n ? sie hat die schreckliche Angewohnheit, immer recht zu hab?n, jedesmal! Mein Vater sagte mir ma?, ich soll das Wort ?Omniszienz? nachschlagen, damit ich das Gehirn der Drachenlehrerin mit Erwachsenenworten beschreib?n kann! Also, das hat echt schon Stunden gedauert, nur um ?rauszukrieg?n, wie man so?n schwer zu buchstabier?nes Wort wie Omniszienz im W?rterbuch findet! Klar hab? ich zwischendurch ma? Pause gemacht! Schon gut, jetz? hab? ich?s, aber daf?r musste ich echt was tun! Is? nich? leicht, schlau zu sein! Das macht mich irgendwie nerv?s, wenn ich ?n Fernseher anmache, um meine Sendungen zu seh?n, und die werd?n von Nachrichten ?ber Bombenangriffe und so?nem Zeug unterbroch?n! Das is? echt gruselig! Oma sagt: ?Wenn es nicht die eine Sache ist, ist es eine andere! Die Menschen scheinen einfach nicht miteinander klar zu kommen!? Neulich hab? ich mir in ?nem Buch ?n Bild von der Erde aus dem Weltall angeseh?n und sie sieht so gro? aus und du kannst nich? ma? irgendein? Menschen drauf seh?n! Mann, mit dem ganzen Platz zum Bewegen und so, k?nnte man denk?n, dass die Leute sich gegenseitig in Ruhe lassen k?nnt?n, wenn sie nich? miteinander klar komm?! Wei?t schon, nimm ein bi?chen und gib ein bi?chen! Aber ich glaub?, wir hab?n ?ne Menge gieriger Leute auf dieser Erde und deshalb is? ?ne Menge von denen auch so fett! Gierknochen, die vasuch?n jeden und alles zu verschling?n! And?rerseits, ?n paar von denen sind auch d?nn! Mann, dieses ganze Sich-Aufgespiele is? einfach nich? der Weg f?r uns, miteinander klar zu komm?. Und das klappt bestimmt nich? mit ?Friede auf Erden und den Menschen ein Wohlgefallen.? Das z?hlt wahrscheinlich nur zu Weihnachten? Also bleib? ich erstmal ruhig und hoff? weiter, dass die Dinge bald besser werd?n? Oder wenigstens besser werd?n bevor ich nach den Ferjen wieder zur Schule geh?, sonst bedeutet dieser ganze ?rger nur ?rger f?r mich! Weil die Drachenlehrerin mich und meine Kumpels ?ber diesen ganzen Kram schreib?n l?sst! Mann, das is? Grund genug, dass ich mir w?nsch?, diese ganzen Schwierigkeiten w?rd?n sich ma? erledig?n ? schnell! Na gut, vielleicht noch aus ?n paar and?ren Gr?nden, aber das Wichtigste zuerst! Dieses hei?e Wetter macht mich m?de ? ?Nacht ? Hab? euch lieb. ?Nacht. Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre Copyright, August 2005 __________________________________________________________________ 2. THE COLLEGIUM TELEVISION PROGRAM BERLIN LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE UPCOMING EDITION: AUGUST 21, 2005 CINEMA "People, Places, Neighbors & Things" Concept, Production & Direction: Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre Information/Inspiration Jonetta Johnson Page/USA Dr. Mahoma Mwaungulu/Malawi STATE OF AFFAIRS Guest: Marianne Ball? Moudoumbou Conference Interpreter ARTS CALENDAR Emmanuel Eni - Poet accompanied by Alui Suwareh - Djembe Akinola Famson - Balafon __________________________________________________________________ THE COLLEGIUM FORUM & TELEVISION PROGRAM Berlin/ Magdeburg/Wolfsburg/Kaiserslautern and other cosmopolitan cities und andere kosmopolitische St?dte produced & directed by/produziert und geleitet von Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre/Black International Cinema/ Cultural Zephyr e.V. BERLIN Every Sunday jeden Sonntag 9.00 - 10.00 pm 21.00 - 22.00 Uhr Offener Kanal Berlin Voltastr. 5 13355 Berlin-Wedding presenting / pr?sentiert wird Cinema / Discussion / Arts Calendar Filme / Diskussion / Kunstkalender for program information, please contact: Programminformationen bitte unter: 0049 (0)30-782 16 21 0049 (0)30-75 46 09 46 __________________________________________________________________ THE COLLEGIUM TELEVISION PROGRAM BERLIN LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE - LIVE THE COLLEGIUM 2005: September 18 October 16 November 20 December 18 at 9.00 p.m. / 21.00 Uhr __________________________________________________________________ 3. ISD Bundestreffen 2005 Congratulations to the organizers and participants of the ISD Bundestreffen 2005. We wish you continued success. Herzlichen Gl?ckwunsch an die OrganisatorInnen und TeilnehmerInnen des ISD Bundestreffen 2005. Wir w?nschen Euch weiterhin viel Erfolg. Fountainhead? Tanz Theatre __________________________________________________________________ 4. XX. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN 2005 AWARDS 1. Best film/video by a Black filmmaker. 500 YEARS LATER Director: Owen 'Alik Shahadah Documentary, Color, 102 min. U.S.A./UK 2005 English JEPARDEE! Director: Christopher Marlon Narrative, Color, 24 min. U.S.A. 2004 English 2. Best film/video on matters relating to the Black Experience/Marginalized People. CONTINUOUS JOURNEY Director: Ali Kazimi Documentary, Color, 87 min. Canada 2004 English/Punjabi with English subtitles BLACK STUDIES, USA Director: 'Niyi Coker, Jr. Documentary, B/W, 32 min. U.S.A. 2005 English A KILLING IN CHOCTAW Director: Chike C. Nwoffiah Documentary, Color, 91 min. U.S.A. 2004 English 3. Best film/video by a German filmmaker or a filmmaker residing in Germany. PAPA AFRIKA - ON THE ROAD TO THE ROOTS Director: Otu Tetteh Documentary, Color, 50 min. Ghana/Germany German/English, German and English subtitles JOHANNESBURG MARCH 2004 ? Five People - Five Interviews - Five Routes - Five Jobs - Five Days Director: Johannes Buss Documentary/Experimental, Color, 51 min. South Africa 2004 English 4. Best children's film/video. RUBBER SOLES Director: Christine Turner Narrative, Color, 10 min. U.S.A. 2005 English 5. Best film/video in the Fine Arts Discipline. CARMEN AND GEOFFREY Directors: Nick Doob & Linda Atkinson Documentary, Color, 79 min. U.S.A. 2005 English THE ART OF VIY? DIBA - THE INTELLIGENT HAND Director: Claudine Pommier Documentary, Color, 52 min. Canada/Senegal 2003 French with English subtitles THEMES Directors: Dan Boord & Luis Valdovino Documentary/Experimental, Color, 29 min. U.S.A. 2004 English/Spanish with English subtitles 6. Best film/video documentary production. LA RAIZ OLVIDADA - THE FORGOTTEN ROOT Director: Rafael Rebollar Documentary, Color, 50 min. Mexico 2002 Spanish with English subtitles AFROARGENTINOS - AFROARGENTINES Directors: Jorge Fortes & Diego Ceballos Documentary, Color, 75 min. Argentina 2002 Spanish with English subtitles SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT UPRIVER IN TIME Director: Andr? Dryansky Documentary, Color, 52 min. The Netherlands 2004 Saramaka/Sranan/Tongo/Dutch with English subtitles THE CAGE Director: Damon Russell Documentary, Color, 70 min. U.S.A. 2004 English GOMSHODEH DAR SHARG - LOST IN EAST Director: Farid Mirkhani Narrative, Color, 76 min. Iran 2004 Turkish with English subtitles RALPH BUNCHE: A BLACK SCHOLAR INVESTIGATES COLONIALISM Director: William Greaves Documentary, Color, B/W, 25 min. U.S.A. 2003 English STORY OF A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY Director: Khalo Matabane Documentary, Color, 73 min. South Africa/Canada 2004 English ST?RKER ALS DIE ANGST - STRONGER THAN FEAR Director: Ulrike Westermann Documentary, Color, 52 min. Germany 2004 English/German/French with English subtitles THE NEW DISCIPLES Director: Colin Sinclair Narrative, Color, 36 min. England 2004 English AU PAIR CHOCOLAT Director: Benson McGrath & Abigail McGrath Narrative, Color, 87 min. U.S.A. 2004 English __________________________________________________________________ 5. XX. Black International Cinema Berlin 2005 FASHION SHOW & FESTIVAL IMPRESSIONS PHOTOGRAPHS/FOTOGRAFIEN: http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC05/XX.BIC2005/HTML/bic05_frameset.htm __________________________________________________________________ 6. XXI. BLACK INTERNATIONAL CINEMA BERLIN/PARIS/ST. LOUIS, MO. 2006 ENTRY FORM INFORMATION http://www.black-international-cinema.com/BIC06/HTML/bic06_frameset.htm __________________________________________________________________ Mottoes: "I may not make it if I try, but I damn sure won?t if I don?t..." Oscar Brown Jr. "Mankind will either find a way or make one." C.P. Snow ?Whatever you do..., be cool!" Joseph Louis Turner ?Yes, I can...!? Sammy Davis Jr. ?Fountainhead?, August 2005 +++ +++ +++ Create your own newsletter with many great features! http://www.free-letters.de +++ +++ +++ Check out http://www.metal-inside.de, one of German's great metal magazines From hachew at gmail.com Tue Aug 23 01:45:41 2005 From: hachew at gmail.com (Huibin Amelia Chew) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:45:41 -0400 Subject: [m2c] Cindy Sheehan, gender & galvanizing the movement Message-ID: hey discussioners, I just read Vijay Prashad's piece on counterpunch which postulates Cindy Sheehan as a modern Rosa Parks, and presents a common public relations dilemma to both of their actions -- they center public attention on, asking spectators to relate to, an individual's outrage, causing tensions about the place of the movement behind that individual. That is, Sheehan's action has been sustainable and made possible because of the larger movement and organization she is a member of (for instance, MFSO). She is not just an individual moved by spontaneous grief, but a deliberate activist supported by a movement. Yet at the same time, her individual situation of grief is a strategic source of her political potency, demanding attention from those who will listen -- while the right-wing seeks to use any of her connections to the movement as a basis for delegitimizing her. (see http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad08192005.html for Prashad piece.) I am thinking of interviews with right-wing mothers on Democracy Now -- mothers who have also lost sons -- who claim to sympathize with her grief, but dismiss her political analysis of the situation as just wrong. Who won't give up their tremendous faith in Bush or whatever -- who acknowledge her grief but deny any other valid basis for her actions. Who are not connecting their personal exploitation to a fucked up political system -- because all mothers grieve, and the difference between them and Sheehan is that she's crazy. I believe part of how the above tension can be resolved is by seeking to continually draw attention to what Sheehan's individual action says about how she is directly being screwed by the larger political context -- that is, by trying to connect herself, her individual grief, to the larger political analysis. And not just how in the abstract, that the war is hurting the working class, etc. But how in the concrete, this analysis applies to *her*. In a concrete way this must involve a deep analysis of how Sheehan *herself*, not just the troops, have been screwed over by the system. We must show how her feelings of grief themselves are not just individual, but a product of deep political injustices. I'd like to argue that doing so *must* (of course) include a gender analysis of the situation. We cannot just talk about what happened to her son. But what happened to her, as a symbol of how women and members of military families are treated. What it means on a gendered level to have blind faith in the President and other military officials who give orders. What it means for women of military families to be manipulated into supporting war -- bearing emotional and economic burdens of holding families together, losing loved ones. I am thinking about right-wing military mothers who on some level are supporting such policies out of love. Out of concern for the future of their children... (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/22/1433240) Attention should be drawn to that violation, too -- not just the violation of their children, but the violation of *themselves*. As unemployed or working women exploited for their unpaid labor, and bearing the privatization of public services (which also means they take up the slack in the unpaid realm) -- as women who are forced to give up loved ones. etc. Maybe this can help kindle more outrage in military families, mothers, and partners. It is too easy to hold up Rosa Parks and Cindy Sheehan's as martyrs selflessly standing up for others (in this case, the troops) or sacrificing for the larger cause beyond themselves. But what would it mean to take them as activists and agents, not just victims, fighting for themselves against some form of oppression directly affecting them? How would that galvanize not just the troops, but others in similar positions? We also need to keep pointing out the violation in the right-wing's callous dismissals of Sheehan, and personal attacks (also part of how she is getting screwed by the system). And part of those violations are *gendered*. Hello, political commentators! well, maybe this was an exercise in self-indulgent theorizing, but it doesn't seem like many people are discussing similarly. just thought I'd throw it out. peace -Amee -- "There are plenty of women in Fallujah who have testified they were raped by American soldiers... They are nearby the secondary school for girls inside Fallujah. When people came back to Fallujah the first time they found so many girls who were totally naked and they had been killed." -- Mohammed Abdulla, executive director of the Study Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Fallujah, quoted in http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000251.php From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 23 02:37:50 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:37:50 -0700 Subject: [m2c] Framed Out: What Place for Women in the "Anti-war Movement"? Message-ID: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=91&ItemID=8439 ZNet | Feminism/Gender Framed Out What Place for Women in the "Anti-war Movement"? by Amee Chew; Left Hook; August 03, 2005 Three years ago, the Women of Color Resource Center released a statement about the War on Terror that's still relevant: "Women, Raise Your Voices!" They listed ten reasons for opposing the War on Terror, chosen to illustrate the gendered effects of militarism and imperialism. Today, deep into the quagmire of the unjust and brutal occupation of Iraq, segments of the anti-war movement continue to point out connections between war, and patriarchy or domestic inequality. For instance, these marginalized parts of the anti-war movement draw attention to the U.S. military as not only a racist, but also a misogynist institution; or to social budget cuts which disproportionately impact women and communities of color. But a gendered analysis ? an understanding of the connections between imperialism and U.S. patriarchy ? is hardly an integral part of a movement which only recently began taking the racist poverty draft seriously, and which is still struggling to rebuild itself after the invasion. As the anti-war movement grapples with how to grow from its diminished state, there is a trend which seeks to build the movement by focusing it on a "lowest common denominator": ending the occupation of Iraq and bringing the troops home now. In the activist circles I'm a part of in Boston, some advocate presenting this LCD to the exclusion of other issues, as the unifying 'slogan' or focus of events, rather than building events around multiple, related issues. When I raised the possibility of adding a reference to the military's misogyny or homophobia in an advertisement for a counter-recruitment protest, this was dismissed as too potentially divisive, a dilution of focus ? even if such information is perfectly relevant to potential women recruits. At the same time, these activists' purported adherence to the LCD is somewhat disingenuous, because the same individuals are willing to pair it with other slogans exploring militarism's economic impact ? "Money for Jobs and Education, Not War and Occupation" ? and more recently, the "racist poverty draft." Even while arguing for the need to focus on an LCD, they convene several directions of analysis. Apparently these activists have made a decision about which issues they think will have the most (white male) mainstream appeal, to build the biggest movement as fast as possible. But activists play a dual role ? in both building an inclusive and growing movement, as well as helping raise the political consciousness of this movement. Some argue that allowing a variety of speakers, workshops, and literature at events can cover the role of expanding people's consciousness, even as the movement strives to preserve a limited, uniting focus. While I support having these spaces for exploring a deeper analysis of the war, slogans, advertisements, the very way a movement is *framed*, are also important vehicles for introducing new ideas to people ? as well as creating a movement that is truly inclusive. An inclusive movement does not just use the footwork and labor of minorities, but prioritizes their interests in a deep sense by trying to challenge the complex ways they are oppressed and exploited. At stake is the position of minorities and women in "the anti-war movement." Will concerns which affect them remain at the margins, or will the movement strive to make these more central? Will the average non-activist who lives in a neighborhood of color, who lacks healthcare, affordable housing, decent work, who has perhaps faced sexual violence, feel this movement is actually relevant to her immediate life ? will she know the power of struggling in a movement closely connected to the concerns directly affecting her, or will she have to choose *between* priorities due to the movement's myopia? People's lives do not operate around a single, de-contextualized issue. The unwillingness of anti-war activists I have met to even be open to exploring ways of deepening this movement's framework, only appears evidence of the kind of exclusion that feminists of color are up against within leftist organizing. Perhaps I can only say that my experiences left me enervated and discouraged. How this movement is built around an LCD will have important ramifications for minority activists and communities of color. Some anti-war activists have blamed 'multiple issue' agendas as the reason for ANSWER and UFPJ's decision to cease working together and host separate same-day protests in D.C. this September. I see this split as more a matter of the lack of joint input, mutually respectful collaboration, and involved decision-making. Ideally, democratic decision-making would help facilitate collaborations, and the identification of common ground, between different organizations. Multiple issues can still revolve around a central focus or set of priorities! Rather than condemning every case of 'multiple issues,' the task of anti-war activists should be to figure out how various analyses can be introduced to audiences in ways that meet them at their level of consciousness ? both including the converted, *and* pushing people to make new political connections. For example, few in the general public may understand a reference to patriarchy, but most people are against rape. We can speak out against misogyny in the military without resorting to obtuse terminology. The organization Global Women's Strike coined the slogan, "Invest in Caring, Not Killing," to draw attention to connections between the undervaluing of women's unpaid labor ? such as through public cutbacks in welfare and healthcare ? and militarism. I have been told by certain activists that this term is too "abstract" to actually use. Would it be so incomprehensible if paired next to our favorite old line about public versus military spending? (Or is "caring" just too touchy-feely for masculinist tastes?) As soldiers returning from the front speak out against the war in growing numbers, and inspiring struggles against military recruitment increase, it will be a challenge for us to keep the full spectrum of who is impacted by imperialism ? not simply our boys ? in the movement's radar. Third world feminists, anti-racist, and immigrant rights activists potentially have an important anti-imperialist critique to offer this movement. We can position ourselves to demonstrate the links between foreign and domestic policies in ways that implicate not only class exploitation, but a racialized and gendered economic system. Moreover, we can be vigilant about grounding this movement in the local struggles of immigrants and people of color. Yet it is only by actively organizing around issues that affect immigrant women and women of color, in connection to the war, that we can raise them to prominence and ensure they are not dropped from a national anti-imperialist agenda. We must ensure that a movement against the occupation of Iraq seeks to link the issue of U.S. foreign policy to our local community struggles, and honors those affected by gender oppression and sexual exploitation. But furthermore, perhaps we should go beyond this to create an anti-imperialist movement that actually enriches rather than marginalizes these community struggles. The anti-war movement is in a period of soul-searching as it grapples with how to build and grow. The time to act is now. We must create our own radical feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist organizations, when others neglect this agenda. * * * The Women of Color Resource Center's statement is online at http://www.coloredgirls.org/content.cfm?cat=publication&file=antiwar. Of use to future organizing is a detailed brochure, "The 'War of Terror' Intensifies Violence Against Women of Color, Third World Women, and Our Communities," produced by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence ? a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities. -- Huibin Amee Chew, 23, is a recent graduate of Harvard University. She is active in local anti-imperialist, immigrant, and feminist organizing. She can be reached at hachew at gmail.com. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 23 02:37:49 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:37:49 -0700 Subject: [m2c] For Rural Women Self-help Is Best Message-ID: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29913 For Rural Women Self-help Is Best Date : Tuesday, August 16, 2005 Source : Inter Press Service Author : Nitin Jugran Bahuguna NAITRI, India , Aug 16 (IPS) - Tackling issues like female illiteracy became easy once the women in this remote village on the Tibetan border in picturesque Uttaranchal state, decided that they were closely linked to the shiftlessness of the men folk coupled with their ruinous drinking habits. Organising themselves into a small but determined Self Help Group (SHG), the women set about the twin-tasks of getting their girl children to school in defiance of male opinion, while simultaneously launching an aggressive anti-liquor campaign. Walking fearlessly into homes and forcibly breaking pots and distilling equipment used for brewing home-made liquor, the women compelled their men to take seriously their twin programmes of improving literacy and banning alcohol. Now, five years down the line, the women are looking back with satisfaction and ready to reap the benefits of keeping Naitri village alcohol-free, with children of both sexes to be seen tripping cheerfully to school and back. But the women of Naitri swear that none of this would have happened but for the formation of their SHG in 2000. Indeed, the Naitri women?s SHG has become such a force that today it has practically taken over the village panchayat (local body) and its leader Rampyari plans to contest elections for Gram Pradhan (village chief) -- unthinkable for a village woman just a few years ago. Wresting away this bastion of patriarchal power and control took grit and perseverance in the face of male resistance, although national law reserving 33 percent of elected seats in local bodies for women helped. At the moment, the women are busy constructing a building to house the panchayat. ''As we are looking after several development works in the village, we approached the authorities with our request for a panchayat bhawan (panchayat house),'' Rampyari,38, told IPS. Males in the village objected to the construction of a building which, to them, appeared to institutionalise the new power of women, but they were easily ignored. ''We women have a lot of power. We needed a place where we could meet and discuss important issues pertaining to our village, such as crop protection and better roads,'' Rampyari said simply but forcefully. When actual acquisition of land for the panchayat house became a battle between the sexes as men of the 100-odd families that form the village resisted, the women took their demand to the district magistrate at Uttarkashi - a powerful bureaucrat who represents the central government. ''The district magistrate decided in our favour and ordered a police inspector to visit our village and ensure that we could put up the building without hindrance,'' said Rampyari. ''I personally oversaw the construction which was completed in about 10 months,'' she added. As for funds, the SHG members pooled money needed to buy the land for the panchayat house and once that was achieved, the government stepped in with the 3,500 US dollars needed to construct up a proper, two-room building. The Naitri story is an inspiring example of how women can break free of cultural and traditional shackles if they unite as a pressure group to demand their rights, But it is not an isolated one in these parts. At nearby Kimi village, a 10-member women?s SHG is working alongside the panchayat to ensure that development work in the village gets carried out speedily and efficiently. ''Our SHG is an effective forum to discuss issues, like cleaning and clearing of paths, providing water, collecting fodder and other community matters,'' said Lakshmi, 55, SHG chairperson and panchayat member. The SHG imposes and collects fines of about 40 cents on people who allow their cattle to stray into cultivated land and, thereby, asserts its authority. "The SHG has provided so much to us in terms of knowledge and savings -- otherwise who bothers about us illiterate, mountain women,'' said Lakshmi. The Naugaon block (basic administrative unit) of Uttarkashi district, in which Naitri and Kimi villages fall, has an overall literacy rates of 41 percent among its 56,000 people, while the female literacy rate is an abysmal 6.8 percent. ''In our time, girls were not allowed to go to school. We were told it was not important because we would be married off anyway and sent to another village. But today, all girls in the village go to school,'' says Surjidevi, a former secretary of the Kimi SHG. The SHG concept has also been instrumental in improving the economic status of women in rural areas, says Chhaya Kunwar, coordinator of the Himalayan Action Research Centre (HARC), a non-government organisation (NGO) that is based in Dehradun town, capital of Uttaranchal state. HARC has for several years now been working for the social, political and economic empowerment of women in the mountain region and initiated the process of building and empowering women?s SHGs in the Naugaon, Purola, Barkot, Bagasu and Rajgarhi blocks of Uttarkashi district in 2000. Over the last three years HARC facilitated a total of 182 SHGs in Uttarkashi district and Chaya believes this has gone a long way in reaching the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially those on achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and poverty alleviation. It has not been easy work in these remote marches of the vast Indian sub-continent . ''We believe that any success has been the result of a slow and gradual process of institution building,'' Chaya said. She explained that HARC has in place a phased strategy to build and strengthen the SHGs followed by capacity building. ''Training sessions, exposures, face-to-face interaction with experts, practitioners and government officials are organised to build confidence in the women, develop leadership qualities and enhance group management skills,'' Chhaya said. Motivators were trained to help the groups on issues which, if not handled sensitively, could result in disintegration of the SHG especially in the initial stages when clashes of ideas would erupt over issues. The motivators played a key role in strengthening the SHGs, recalled Ameeta Kala, an activist with HARC for over eight years. Lack of understanding on the functioning process of the group, not updating minutes of monthly meetings, not paying loan instalments in time, poor discipline and disinterest were just some of the many hurdles, she said. Many groups emerged strong because they were encouraged to start income- generation activities based on locally available resources. The Naitri SHG maintains a small kitty of 100 dollars stashed away in the local bank besides a revolving fund of 300 dollars that enables members to avail of loans for emergencies such as illnesses, marriages and buying seed crops. At Kimi, the villagers are more ambitious and its SHG has begun lobbying authorities to have a dispensary set up in the village and also install more water pipes to enhance the well-being of residents and raise productivity. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 23 02:37:52 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:37:52 -0700 Subject: [m2c] Condom Distributor Sues U.S. Government, Refuses to Stop Outreach for Prostitutes Message-ID: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20050817p2g00m0in030000c.ht ml Condom Distributor Sues U.S. Government, Refuses to Stop Outreach for Prostitutes Date : Wednesday, August 17, 2005 Source : Associated Press Author : Margie Mason DATELINE: HANOI, Vietnam An international aid group has sued the U.S. government, claiming its free-speech rights were violated after its funding was cut for refusing to agree to stop promoting condom use among prostitutes, an official said. Washington-based DKT International filed the suit last week in the U.S. district court in Washington against the U.S. Agency for International Development after a grant for its Vietnam program was cut, said Larry Holzman, DKT country director in Hanoi. "The U.S. government has told us that we shouldn't provide any assistance to prostitutes nor should we encourage them," he said. "This is an outright breach of our (free speech) rights ... it is preventing us from speaking freely with our customers." USAID in Washington declined to comment on the suit, but spokesman Kevin Sheridan said the general U.S. policy opposes sex trafficking and prostitution as dehumanizing and degrading. It does not prohibit HIV/AIDS services for prostitutes, he said. Holzman said the Vietnam office has received about US$250,000 ([euro]203,000) in indirect funding from the U.S. over the past four years and the government has also provided about 40 million condoms that are sold nationwide for about 5 U.S. cents apiece. He said DKT was asked to sign a statement last month pledging that U.S. funding would not be used to promote programs involving commercial sex workers. He also expects the U.S. government to stop providing him with condoms. The Bush administration maintains that emphasizing condoms promotes promiscuity among youth. It instead endorses "abstinence until marriage" HIV-prevention programs, which have been highly criticized. Last year, Brazil rejected about US$40 million ([euro]33 million) in U.S. funding to fight HIV/AIDS after Washington condemned prostitution, which is legal in the Latin American country. Last year President George W. Bush selected Vietnam as one of 15 countries worldwide - the only one in Asia - to receive emergency HIV/AIDS funding. Health experts have warned that the communist country is on the cusp of an explosive epidemic, where injection drug users and prostitutes make up the bulk of its HIV infections. Holzman said his organization applied for grants but did not receive any of the emergency funding. He said workers from his organization regularly visit karaoke bars, hotels and brothels to educate prostitutes about condom use. DKT is the largest condom distributor in Vietnam, selling more than 400 million condoms since 1993. Since Vietnam's first HIV/AIDS case was detected in 1990, the country has recorded nearly 85,000 cases. However, some health officials believe the actual number of infected people is closer to 245,000. On the Net: http://www.dktinternational.org --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 23 02:37:51 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:37:51 -0700 Subject: [m2c] Bush Hurts Women When He Nixes Funds for U.N. Message-ID: http://womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2415 Bush Hurts Women When He Nixes Funds for U.N. Run Date: 08/17/05 By Pat Orvis WeNews commentator As she waits for word on whether President Bush will fund the U.N. Population Fund this year, Pat Orvis lays out her reasons for the United States to make good on all its U.N. obligations. The arrears, she says, cost women their health and their lives. Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews. UNITED NATIONS (WOMENSENEWS)--Any day now, as President George W. Bush reviews the new annual budgets, he may finally do the right thing. After consistently refusing to approve funds for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) since he took office, he may decide to save the lives of thousands of women and children. He can do that by giving the go-ahead to the $34 million that Congress has promised UNFPA each year, beginning in the Clinton administration. But as the president's decision looms on the $34 million allocation for next year, staffers at UNFPA--which aids the world's most impoverished women--are not holding their breath. Congress has been approving funds for the UNFPA since the agency was started in 1969, with the expectation their decisions will be honored. But, while U.S. representatives such as Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) have rightly called UNFPA the "single largest global source of multilateral funding for maternal health and family planning programs," their wishes have been ignored by the Bush administration. Tragic Costs UNFPA estimates the refusal costs in tragic terms: 2 million unwanted pregnancies that lead to 800,000 of the very abortions Bush condemns; 4,700 maternal deaths and 77,000 infants and children who died before they reach age 5. And this $34 million so-called "voluntary contribution" is actually pretty small compared to the $1.48 billion voluntary contribution the U.S. recently gave to the World Food Program, or the $120 million it gave to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (The U.N.'s 191 member nations pay for the work of the U.N. in two different ways: with these voluntary contributions made to U.N.-related agencies and other bodies, such as the World Bank and World Health Organization, at annual donor meetings. Also, with dues assessed biennially by the U.N. General Assembly of all countries, based on wealth and population.) Yet the Bush Administration has refused to hand over the $34 million promised to UNFPA every year on grounds that UNFPA supports China's "coercive family planning," that, because of the nation's one-child policy, often leads to abortion and sterilization. An official at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, who said he could not be named, confirmed that the administration "has no intention of releasing any funds to any recipient that might use them for abortion." Yet, according to Anika Rahman, president of Americans for UNFPA, which works to promote the organization: "This administration's own team went to China and found that UNFPA has never been engaged in a single act of coercion in China. "And they have acknowledged that fact," continues Rahman, "but now continue to deny the funds on grounds that--apparently just by working there--UNFPA supports China's 'highly coercive environment.'" Other aid organizations being hurt by the administration's narrow focus on birth control include the World Health Organization, WHO. In 2002 the State Department froze some $3 million intended for WHO, following complaints by far-right constituents that WHO conducts research on mifepristone, the "abortion pill." Yet, just last September, then-president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., Gloria Feldt, contested these complaints in a column published by MaximsNews.com. "No U.S. monies are spent on mifepristone research, but the Bush administration withheld its contribution to WHO as a coercive tool anyway," Feldt wrote. Other U.S. Arrears It's not just voluntary contributions where the United States is in arrears. The U.S. has repeatedly fallen behind in its dues assessed by the General Assembly until now its total owed in combined arrears and current dues is a whopping $1.5 billion, according to semi-monthly U.N. reports on dues and arrears for all 191 countries. This figure includes dues owed to three major U.N. budgets: to the U.N. regular budget, to the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations and to the international tribunals investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. By wealth and population, according to General Assembly estimates when the United Nations first got going 60 years ago, the United States should pay some 35 percent of the U.N. regular budget, as it did then. But Washington soon negotiated a cap for all countries at 25 percent. Through more recent negotiations, it now pays 22 percent. Meanwhile, the cost of U.N. dues to individual Americans has never exceeded 25 cents per year, far less than that of a tiny country such as Cape Verde, which each year pays its dues on time, to the tune of $28.92 for every citizen. It is also well-documented that the U.S. is among a handful of countries reaping most of the profits from U.N. development projects, since the U.S. is one of a handful of industrialized countries that fund such projects and conduct the feasibility studies that define them--and decide who gets the profitable chance to carry them out. (A few years back, in fact, an enterprising journalist crunched some numbers and determined that, for every $1 the U.S. Government gives to the huge development undertakings of the World Bank, the U.S. private sector gets $10 back.) Women Pay the Price Meanwhile, women often pay a high price when member states short these U.N. budgets. A good example is the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping. As the richest member state, which rarely sends troops to peacekeeping missions but gets to make major decisions about peacekeeping, the U.S. is assessed 27 percent of the total peacekeeping budget, to which its total owed just reached just under $900 million. "We have found that, if a peacekeeping mission has insufficient funding, forcing the peacekeepers to pull out prematurely, the country relapses back into war within five years," says Comfort Lamptey, gender adviser for department's 'best practices unit.' "And with that comes crimes against women, whose bodies during any war become the battleground." And if peace cannot be sustained, adds Lamptey, "it is women who become widowed and are left to raise the children." Just last week the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a new report on sexual violence against women in the war torn Darfur region of Sudan. In the report, the agency's head Louise Arbour calls for the government of Sudan to recognize and end what Arbour calls the "most horrific sexual violence," including "the severest forms of gang rape" by both Sudan's military and the militias creating its civil strife. For all these reasons, the United States should be upholding all its obligations to the U.N., dues and voluntary contributions alike. Pat Orvis is a U.N. correspondent who has traveled extensively on assignment in all the developing regions. For more information: UNFPA: http://www.unfpa.org/ 34 Million Friends of UNFPA: http://www.34millionfriends.org/ --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Sun Aug 28 02:46:52 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 01:46:52 -0700 Subject: [m2c] 'It's porn, innit?': WHSmith selling playboy stationary to kids Message-ID: Letters to the guardian in response to this; http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,1553758,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,1549273,00.html 'It's porn, innit?' What does this Playboy logo mean to you? To WHSmith, it means one of the most popular range of stationery ever sold. And it's aimed at children. What's going on, asks Rachel Bell Monday August 15, 2005 Guardian Last month, seven smartly uniformed schoolgirls could be seen picketing outside the Croydon branch of WHSmith in south-west London. The protest, which made headline local news, was against the store selling Playboy-branded stationery, targeted at teenage girls. The protesters, ranging in age from 11-15, from Coloma convent girls' school, decided to take a stand following class debates with their teacher. When Eleanor Kirwan saw the Playboy stationery range next to Disney and Winnie the Pooh in WHSmith and in her classroom, she reckoned her pupils deserved to know exactly what they'd been sold. "I do not vilify the pupils who own Playboy stationery - my criticism is directed at those who buy the Playboy licence and target children. Companies must take social responsibility into account as well. Our argument is that they are simply prioritising financial gain over the moral offensiveness of using children to sell sex. I merely accompanied the pupils to their picket. They were present because they had made an informed and passionate choice." Playboy was established as a pornographic magazine in 1953 by Hugh Hefner. Over the decades the brand has extended beyond the magazine into Playboy Enterprises Inc, reaching into every form of media. Playboy products can now be found in the Argos catalogue. Debenhams stock Playboy women's watches, bedlinen, cushions and expensive gift chocolates. Even Playboy mobile phone covers are big. Hefner's LA Playboy Mansion entered the mainstream by becoming a celebrity party haunt, and MTV snooped around the place for its popular Cribs series. Justin Timberlake, adored by zillions of pre-teen and teen girls, made the video for his collaborative single with Nelly there. So WHSmith has just jumped on the Playboy bandwagon. The difference is that, unlike other retailers, it is clearly marketing its products to children, not adults. Its Playboy stationery range which, in my local branch in Wood Green, London, shares a stand with Bratz and Funky Friends, includes pink and glittery pencil cases, pink ring-binders, mini pads, diaries, zip files, gel pens and eraser sets. I know a five-year-old who'd just love the set of cute bunny rubbers in a row. Pencil cases are largely used by schoolchildren. Pink and glittery is largely favoured by girls from 0-16 years. By placing the bunny logo on school equipment, underage children are seduced into buying into the pornographic brand - an adult, top-shelf brand that sells women as sexual commodities. But WHSmith denies that Playboy means porn. "Playboy is probably one of the most popular ranges we've ever sold," says head of media relations for WHSmith, Louise Evans. "It outsells all the other big brands in stationery, like Withit [a range of cute cartoon animals], by a staggering amount. That should give you an idea of how popular the brand is. We offer customers choice. We're not here to act as a moral censor." The pressure group Object, which is also campaigning against WHSmith's promotion of the Playboy brand to children, says: "Playboy's logo clearly represents pornography. The magazine routinely features sexualised and full-frontal images of naked young women. It also promotes pornographic videos and strip shows. Playboy is about men buying women and presents this as natural and normal male behaviour, together with fast cars, football and male role models (not shown naked). WHSmith is therefore endorsing pornography to young, impressionable and possibly underage girls." Kirwan says the teenage girls in her school "are aware of what the Playboy icon is" and "were saying that, even though the pencil cases feature no blatant pornographic images, the bunny symbol represents pornographic images. The girls are able to acknowledge that symbols have a deeper significance than that which is on the surface. For stockists and manufacturers to deny this is shockingly disingenuous." But for WHSmith it's a style choice. "We believe it is a fashion range," says Evans. "There's no inappropriate imagery. It's just the bunny. It's a bit of fun, popular and fashionable." While some will always defend the media being saturated with images of women as sex objects and the mainstreaming of porn as "a bit of fun", others are deeply concerned about the damaging effects it is having on the perception of women. Kirwan's class debates confirm that children do not always understand that media representations of women are not real. "The girls do not yet have the mental sophistication to recognise that the Playmates are not real. They don't realise that the image of female beauty that they see in the media is staged and not something they can expect to emulate. They really didn't know about the amount of styling that someone like Posh [Victoria Beckham] has. I do recognise an attitude among the older ones that it's not a problem to be a glamour girl or a playgirl. " Talking about any kind of sex, particularly in school, is excruciating for some children. "One 12-year-old told me," says Kirwan, "that since we had started discussing the stationery, she had thrown her Playboy pencil case away. 'It's gross. I don't want that on my stuff,' she said. These are girls of the age where even using the words sex or pornography can be embarrassing. Lots of the 11- and 12-year-olds hadn't even heard of pornography and yet had the porn king's logo on their school equipment and plastered across their chests at weekends." Earlier this year Mizz magazine, which is aimed at preteens and teens, promoted Playboy stationery on its cover and as a free giveaway inside. Editor Lucie Tobin defends her choice of giveaway: "The Playboy brand extensions are one of the most popular with our readers - to them it is a cool stationery and clothing brand. They love the colours and the logo which is given added cool by its association with American hip-hop stars. To them, it is a fashion range and they are unaware of its history. We reflect our readers' tastes, not tell them what they should like. Tobin adds: "Our readers are 10 to 14 and relatively unworldly. Under my editorship, we do not cover sex in Mizz and pride ourselves on being parent-friendly and responsible." That responsibility obviously doesn't apply to Tobin's endorsement of brands, which Object describes as "normalising and marketing pornography to young teenage girls". Natasha Walter, author of The New Feminism, says, "The use of the Playboy logo in what would once have been seen as bizarrely inappropriate places is only part of the widespread mainstreaming of pornography that is pretty characteristic of our culture. Playboy itself, once the target of second-wave feminist rage, looks so harmless and playful to most people now, especially when compared to the kind of hard, mean pornography that can be easily seen by anyone over the internet." The more Playboy is welcomed into the kids' mainstream as harmless fun, the more insidious it becomes. "This magazine is dangerous as it is perceived to be stylish and is one of the main marketing tools of the pornography industry," say Object. "It helps to ensure an endless supply of young, naked 'babes' and reinforces the misperception that young women depicted solely as sexual commodities is a glamorous and natural career option for young women. " The perverse image of female beauty that Playboy promotes, of women as Identikit, size-eight, ever available sex toys, all oversized breasts and lips, becomes normalised, too. As does porn's image of female sexuality. "Pornography has a powerful misogynistic message in that the portrayal and perception of women and female sexuality is for the consumption and usage of men," says Object. "Pornography reinforces narrow gender roles, with the result that pre-pubescent and teenage boys learn via pornography that it is their right to use female sexuality for their pleasure and commodification." Girls, already bombarded with images of unattainable thinness and beauty, are given get another fake image of feminine perfection to idolise. Just as they're developing their self-awareness and sexuality, when their self-esteem is so heavily dependent on body image, it's not just unfair to sell children the ideal of the Playmate; it's plain grotesque. Witnessing mainstream and teen media embrace the likes of Abi Titmuss, Jodie Marsh and Jordan, little girls now see becoming a glamour girl as a viable career option. Is porn star next? "I like the brand because it's posh," explains 14-year-old Tatiana. "It makes you feel like you're worth something." When I ask her if she knows what the bunny logo means, she giggles and says, "It's porn innit? But people don't think it's porn. They think it looks nice." The cute bunny, surely one of the most ingenious ideas in the history of morally loathsome marketing, is embedded as respectable, normal. It's so subliminal - and all the more pernicious for it. Walter is heartened by the schoolgirls' protest, saying, "I think it's possible that one day the tide will turn, and what looks so acceptable in the mainstream public arena might get pushed back to the fringes again by women - and men - who aren't prudes, but who are tired of seeing sexuality imagined in such reductive ways." ? If you have strong views on this subject contact us at women at guardian.co.uk Guardian Unlimited ? Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005 --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Sun Aug 28 02:51:55 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 01:51:55 -0700 Subject: [m2c] New Feminist Political Party Created in British Columbia Message-ID: http://www.womennet.ca/news.php?show&3296 New Feminist Political Party Created in British Columbia 2005-07-19 Duncan BC, July 12, 2005: The FemINist INitiative of BC announces its registration as a provincial political party with Elections BC. BACKGROUND: On May 20, 2005 three distinct groups of events merged to augur the FemINist INitiative of BC. In May 2005, the Stronach incident in Ottawa reinforced the point that little had changed to bring civility to politics. On May 17, 2005, 58% of BC voters chose BC-STV, while political leaders pondered whether the express will of the people should be followed. Three women in poverty, coming together through the group WISE, had doggedly worked to communicate with political parties and politicians at all levels of government about the existence and effects on society of systemic marginalization. It took about a year for their hope to turn to cynicism. The three women of WISE became Founders of the FemINist INitiative of BC. By June 22, 2005, the party had a constitution, a website, and had become registered with Elections BC. The FemINist INitiative of BC accepts the original premise of feminism, that the feminine in all of us ? women and men ? has as much value to ourselves and to society as the masculine. We accept that differences between women and men exist and we value those differences. We are pro-women and pro-men, and as such, we strive to achieve a balance between the feminine and masculine in the governance of all society's institutions. Over the next four years the FemINist INitiative of BC will, through a process of grassroots consultation and consensus building, develop a party and candidates guided by the values of INclusiveness, INtegrity, INvolvement and INnovation. We will strive for harmony by working toward achieving a society in which its cultural, social, political and economic institutions reflect the balance of the feminine and the masculine inherent in British Columbia's people. We will reach out to members of our society who have been marginalized by societal biases, the bureaucratic wall of silence, and political bungling and lack of awareness. We will encourage their meaningful participation in the formation of policy affecting their lives, because we respect that they ? not politicians, not bureaucrats, not academics ? are more apt to know what is best for them. We will bring civility and openness to the political realm and respect for those whose views we may not share. We will demonstrate through action, and talk without double-speak, that INclusiveness, INtegrity and INnovation can reignite the electorate, inspiring the INvolvement of voters in the political process. We invite interested persons to visit the website of the FemINist INitiative of BC, where they will find information on our history, values, Constitution, views on feminism, and membership and volunteer opportunities. FemINist INitiative of BC http://www.feministinitiative.bc.ca/ feminit at wise-bc.org 250-748-8093 --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Sun Aug 28 02:57:04 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 01:57:04 -0700 Subject: [m2c] Filipino Women in Canada Help Mark Global Day of Action for Justice for World War II Comfort Women Message-ID: http://www.womennet.ca/news.php?show&3349 Filipino Women in Canada Help Mark Global Day of Action for Justice for World War II Comfort Women 2005-08-15 VANCOUVER, B.C. August 11, 2005 -- After 60 long overdue years of receiving no justice, Filipino women in Canada stood in solidarity yesterday with comfort women in the Philippines and around the world to protest theviolent use of sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II. At the steps of Vancouver's Japanese Embassy, Filipino women with children and babies in tow heldsigns which read: "Justice for our lolas (grandmothers) and all victims of sex trafficking!" Testimonies from comfort women survivors and solidarity messages from Canadian, Korean and Filipino communities were declared as part of the global day of action for justice for comfort women. "The Japanese government has remained silent in providing compensation for the lives it has destroyed," explained Rhodora Aberin, board member of the Philippine Women Centre of B.C. a member organization of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC). "This is inexcusable," said Aberin. "Out of 173 documented cases, 45 lolas have since died without receiving justice. Shamelessly, Japan has applied for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council," she continued. A statement read on behalf of the NAPWC stated: "the violation of Filipino women as a weapon of imperialism did not start nor end with World War II. Filipino women continue to be used as military goods for U.S. troops. Prostitution, formerly confined around the U.S. bases, is now rampant throughout the entire Philippine islands." The statement further explained that, "with increased U.S. military occupation throughout the world and Asia in particular, Filipino women and children are increasingly used as sexual slaves through the rise of sex trafficking." Everyday, more and more Filipino women are forced to migrate through the sex trade because of the country's intensifying state of poverty and unemployment. Filipinos are also commodified as cheap and docile labour on the global market. Women in the Philippines also participated in the internationally coordinated action where the lolas (grandmothers) formed the word 'JUSTICE' from 60 lighted candles and flowers before the Japanese Embassy. "The Japanese should resolve the issue now by officially recognizing its war crimes and issuing a public apology and state compensation to all of its victims" stated Rechilda Extremadura, coordinator of Lila-Pilipina, an organization of Filipino comfort women and their families. Members and supporters of NAPWC also vowed to continue to carry forward the Purple Rose Campaign, an international campaign to end the sex trafficking of Filipino women and children initiated by GABRIELA Philippines in 1999. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Sun Aug 28 03:17:10 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:17:10 -0700 Subject: [m2c] UN report: Women still out of key jobs Message-ID: The actual report (available in several languages) can be found here; http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/60/162 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=15560&Cr=women&Cr1=development# Despite new opportunities, stereotypes still keep women out of key jobs ? Annan 25 August 2005 ? Although globalization has raised women?s awareness of employment options and improved job opportunities ? particularly in the service sector ? lingering stereotypes and rigid gender roles can keep them from entering male-dominated sectors or accessing top managerial positions, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report. Further efforts are needed to address the gender wage gap and gender segmentation of the labour market and to improve women?s job security, including in the largely female dominated service sector, Mr. Annan says in a report to the General Assembly on women in development. The report focuses on the impact of globalization on women?s empowerment and employment, using examples from the service sector, which is estimated to be the largest and fastest-growing segment of the world economy and includes professions ranging from education and health services to professional and business services. Mr. Annan also notes the impact on migrant women and trafficked women, who often find themselves trapped in sweatshops and types of exploitation that constitute contemporary forms of slavery. Many migrant women also work in health sector jobs such as nursing or physical therapy, following well-recognized gender stereotypical paths to what is perceived to be ?acceptable economic activities for women.? ?The gender segmentation of the labour market creates an additional challenge for women in the economy,? Mr. Annan says, calling for policies that enable both men and women to take advantage of service sector opportunities, particularly in traditional areas such as information and communication technology and tourism. He also says that national policies and practices needed to be reviewed to eliminate discrimination against migrant women employed in the service sector. ?Increased attention should be given to gender-specific barriers to migration, recruitment practices, access to information, human rights protection and remittance procedures,? he adds. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Sun Aug 28 03:52:22 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:52:22 -0700 Subject: [m2c] UN's Committee on Women criticizes Israel Message-ID: CEDAW's concluding comments on Israel can be seen at; http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw33/conclude/israel/0545042E.pdf http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4108.shtml Human Rights UN?s Committee on Women criticizes Israel Jeff Handmaker, The Electronic Intifada, 22 August 2005 The government of Israel once again expressed its disregard for international law and the United Nations system during the 33rd Session1 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which oversees the implementation of the UN Convention on Women. Like most human rights institutions at the UN, the CEDAW tends to produce its reports using legalistic and diplomatic language. However, it would be a mistake to disregard them because their language is not stronger. Despite appearances, Israel is in fact very sensitive to any criticism from the United Nations and international community. This article seeks to identify some areas where the CEDAW insisted Israel acknowledge its responsibilities towards Palestinians, both inside Israel and in Occupied Palestinian Territory.2 Grave concern for unequal treatment The CEDAW "expressed grave concern about implementation of the Convention (on Women) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, questioning whether real equality existed between Jewish and non-Jewish women in Israel." The CEDAW furthermore "lamented conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinian women - for security concerns - were treated like second-class citizens, often losing their houses and living without water or electricity". Much evidence was given in support of this. For example, the Committee noted that only 5 out of 254 of Israel's judges and less than 2% of its civil servants were Palestinian. Responding to Israel's blanket arguments that this was due to "security concerns", the CEDAW asked: "Would the Palestinian female judges blow up the courts?" The CEDAW also drew attention to unequal treatment of Israelis and Palestinians in accessing health care (drawing particular attention to pregnant women who were stopped at checkpoints on their way to hospitals). The CEDAW furthermore drew attention to Palestinians' unequal access to education and unequal access to employment. "Only applies to Israel" Shavit Matias, Deputy Attorney General in the Israeli Ministry of Justice, presented Israel's country report3, conveniently insisting (as only a lawyer can) that "jurisdiction of the Convention extended only to Israel". In its earlier responses to the CEDAW's questions, the Israeli government had provided a totally different response that: "a normal peacetime human rights regime, of which the CEDAW is clearly a central component, cannot be considered applicable with regard to the territories" (emphasis added). Emphasising Israel's bizarrely contradictory position, Matias further insisted that, in fact, it was the Palestinian Authority which had jurisdiction over such matters and that "Israel had no control over what they did". In this very confused way, Israel emphasised its now common refrain, entirely avoiding discussion of its responsibilities against Palestinians, both in Israel and in Occupied Palestinian Territory. Condemnation of Israel's abuses The CEDAW is made up of independent experts from many countries around the world. In their questions and responses to Israel, and in the CEDAW's important concluding comments, the CEDAW overwhelmingly condemned Israel's abuses against Palestinians (and Bedouins), both inside Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory. In its concluding comments,4 which are always worded in diplomatic language, the CEDAW made clear that Israel's position that it is not responsible for what takes place in the Occupied Territories was "contrary to the views" of CEDAW as well as other international bodies.5 In other words, Israel's position is in total contradiction to international law. CEDAW noted that, in fact, Israel did have "obligations under international human rights conventions as well as humanitarian law" concerning not only Israel, but also the Occupied Territories. As such, CEDAW insisted that Israel report on the conditions of women not only in Israel, but also in the Occupied Territories. Treated with "second class status" At times, CEDAW experts expressed only thinly disguised frustration at Israel's arrogant refusal to accept its responsibilities towards Palestinian women. One expert lamented that: "demolitions, movement restrictions were all part of the occupation that had affected the lives of more than two generations of Palestinian women." Another expert responded that "it was obvious that Palestinian women had a second-class status compared with Jewish women in Israel". CEDAW's important concluding comments, while diplomatically worded, reaffirmed these frustrations. CEDAW expressed unprecedented "concern" at a variety of measures undertaken by Israel. These included: unequal access to decision-making structures (including courts); unequal access to education, employment and healthcare and incidents at checkpoints. Support for the International Court of Justice Finally, CEDAW made explicit reference to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its concluding comments. This was a crucial re-affirmation of the ICJ's conclusions in its July 2004 Advisory Opinion on Israel's construction of a Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory. To recall, the ICJ's Advisory Opinion, reported in numerous other articles on the Electronic Intifada6, was a ground-breaking development, re-affirming the application of international law, refuting Israel's arguments that international law treaties didn't apply in the Occupied Territories and citing numerous violations of international law by Israel and its "associated regime", including the construction of settlements and actions of the Israeli military. "No time for appeasement" CEDAW has joined a chorus of voices insisting that Israel's violations of international law cannot be tolerated. The obligations of States, the United Nations and the European Union to take action in response to these violations are now even more urgent than ever. Re-iterating the words of the United Nations independent Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories, Professor John Dugard: "Israel's defiance of international law poses a threat not only to the international legal order but to the international order itself. This is no time for appeasement on the part of the international community."7 Use the reports of the United Nations Many human rights advocates who follow the work of the United Nations and its treatment of Palestine have become frustrated at its lack of strong statements and feel that things are not progressing quickly enough. Such frustrations are understandable and the United Nations, European Union and individual States should indeed be urged to do much more than they are. All should be reminded that this issue affects them all: as Dugard puts it, this issue threatens the international order. This said, it is also important for human rights advocates to see every development as part of a cumulative (step-by-step) process. The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice concerning Israel's construction of a Wall (and associated regime) drew upon decades of decisions by the United Nations General Assembly, Security Council and human rights institutions in declaring Israel to be violating countless international laws. Similarly, CEDAW draws upon many years of (unsuccessfully) seeking to hold Israel to account. From an international law point of view, CEDAW was unrelenting in its criticisms of Israel. Human rights advocates are urged to use the conclusions of CEDAW, the ICJ and other UN institutions to strengthen their arguments that Israel be held responsible for its violations against Palestinians. Jeff Handmaker is an independent legal advisor in The Hague as well as a part-time Ph.D. researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) in the law faculty at Utrecht University. Endnotes CEDAW 33rd Session (5 to 22 July 2005) See CEDAW Press Release (6 July 2005) Israel's fourth periodic report (PDF) Concluding comments: Israel (PDF) CEDAW (22 July 2005) In this regard, CEDAW referred to "the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee against Torture and also of the International Court of Justice". See: EI's "By Topic" on Israel's Apartheid Wall Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, Including Palestine: Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967', United Nations, 7 Dec. 2004 Ref: E/CN.4/2005/29. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Mon Aug 29 11:51:32 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:51:32 -0700 Subject: [m2c] MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: Moving Backwards Message-ID: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29976 MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: Moving Backwards Gustavo Capdevila GENEVA, Aug 22 (IPS) - A new World Health Organisation (WHO) report shows that less than encouraging results have been obtained so far in the international community's efforts to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These targets are aimed at eradicating extreme poverty and improving the health and welfare of the world's poorest people by the year 2015. Although some progress has been made, health outcomes have been unacceptably poor across much of the developing world. While noting that sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the worst outlook, the report adds that "there are extreme and acute pockets of ill-health in all regions." "If trends observed during the 1990s continue, the majority of poor countries will not meet the health MDGs," the WHO warns in Health and the Millennium Development Goals, a study released Monday. Through the MDGs, adopted in September 2000 by 189 heads of state and government, the world's rich and poor countries alike assumed a commitment to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. While the targets set by the eight MDGs pertain primarily to the developing world, they also emphasise the contributions that can be made by the developed countries through trade, assistance, debt relief, and access to essential medicines and technology transfer. The WHO report stresses that "health is at the heart of the MDGs," in recognition of the fact that "it is central to the global agenda of reducing poverty as well as an important measure of human well-being." While health is specifically represented in three of the eight goals, it makes a clear contribution to the achievement of all the other goals, particularly those related to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, education, and gender equality. With regard to the first health-related goal, reducing infant mortality, the study notes that although some progress has been made in specific countries, nearly 11 million children under the age of five continue to die every year around the world. In fact, in 16 countries - 14 of them in Africa - levels of under-five mortality are higher than in 1990, the reference point for the reduction targets. "None of the poorest regions of the developing world is currently on track to meet the child mortality target," the report underlines. Malnutrition contributes to over half of all child deaths, it adds, noting that progress in reducing child malnutrition has been slow. Over 150 million children under the age of five in the developing world are underweight, which indicates malnourishment. Almost half the children in southern Asia are underweight, while in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of underweight children actually increased from 29 million to 37 million between 1990 and 2003. In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the downward trend in child mortality has been reversed over the past decade. "Overall, 35 percent of Africa's children face a greater risk of dying today, as compared with 10 years ago," states the report. With regard to the goal of improving maternal health, the study reveals that while there have been increases in the rate of attended deliveries in Southeast Asia and North Africa, more than 500,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth each year, and maternal death rates in sub-Saharan Africa are 1000 times higher than in high income countries. In general terms, the WHO's research indicates that declines have been limited to countries that already exhibited lower levels of maternal mortality, while countries with high mortality are experiencing stagnation or even reversals. The third health-related MDG is aimed at combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Although some countries have successfully managed to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, "the story is bleak in many countries," says the study. "With three million deaths from HIV/AIDS alone each year, the worsening global pandemic has reversed life expectancy and economic gains in several African countries," it adds. The study reports that just under half the people living with HIV around the world are female. But as the pandemic worsens, it adds, the share of infected women and girls is growing, owing to physiological reasons and the fact that they typically lack power in sexual relations with men, making them more vulnerable to infection. In the study's conclusions, WHO maintains that efforts to combat communicable diseases, reduce child and maternal mortality, and increase access to HIV/AIDS treatment "all face the same constraint - provision of quality services cannot be scaled up while the health system remains fragile, fragmented and inequitable." The organisation accuses donor countries and national policy makers of failing to pay sufficient attention to strengthening health systems, and calls for efforts to ensure that health has a more prominent place in economic and development policies. While the MDGs represent a commitment to reduce global poverty and close the gap between rich and poor, current trends in health suggest that the world is moving in the opposite direction, the study warns. "In short, the MDG vision - to create a better and fairer world - will fail unless we can do more to improve the health of poor people," it concludes. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Mon Aug 29 11:51:33 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:51:33 -0700 Subject: [m2c] NIGER: Women bear the brunt of hardships and food shortages Message-ID: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/00c753f13fd514840de112e3f62696 f2.htm NIGER: Women bear the brunt of hardships and food shortages 23 Aug 2005 17:26:13 GMT Source: IRIN TILLABERY, 23 August (IRIN) - Every day, Minta, a 40 year-old mother of six, fetches water for the household, does the laundry in the river, labours on her millet farm and, if there is food, prepares the family meals before collapsing into bed, exhausted. But during this particularly difficult lean season, there is no food, and the daily grind has become even more unbearable. With her youngest child wasting away from hunger, Minta has had to walk three hours in the scorching sun on an empty stomach in the hope of getting some food aid. "My husband has a donkey, but I don't know how to ride it," she said apologetically. She sits under the trees, sharing the shade with hundreds of other women hoping to receive food and medical aid at the main hospital in Tillabery, some 100 km northwest of the capital Niamey in one of the areas worst affected by Niger's ongoing food crisis. Minta has never been to school. She can't read or write. She has never even used a telephone. Once - and only once - she travelled in a car. For Minta, and the other women at the hospital, the hunger that has reduced her children to skin and bone is just another hard fact of life. At the hospital the women each cradle at least one baby and most have a toddler or two in tow. Some babies -- like the one curled in the folds of Minta's blue tunic -- are little more than tiny skeletons. When news broke that a convoy of trucks with food aid was approaching Tillabery, Minta's face lit up. Perhaps her baby, among the skinniest of all babies in the yard, was going to make it after all. The food crisis that has affected 3.6 million people in Niger, has highlighted the vulnerable position of women in what is a staunchly Muslim and conservative society and the second poorest country in the world, according to UN figures. Women bear the brunt "When you say food crisis, you say women," Aissata Bagna, a prominent female activist and former health minister, told IRIN in her home in Niamey. "Men can go elsewhere, they can work for food or move away from the village. But the women have to stay behind. They have to take care of the children. They suffer the most," she said. The wave of democratisation that swept through West Africa in the early nineties spawned the first women's groups in Niger and increased their political influence. But at the same time, social progress was hampered by the rapid rise of religious fundamentalism, Bagna explained. "The influence of the fundamentalists is very strong, but they're not the only reason why women are being oppressed," said Bagna. "In Niger, we use three law systems: Muslim law, traditional law and French-inspired common law. It's very ambiguous. As a result, a man can reject his wife after 15 years of marriage and leave her with nothing." According to Bagna, women in Niger are sidelined to a much greater degree than in neighbouring Muslim countries like Burkina Faso and Mali. But Islamic fundamentalism and patriarchal tradition are not the only factors shaping women's lives in Niger. Deeply-rooted and grinding poverty also has a significant part to play in the rubric, say aid workers. More than half of the population of Niger lives on less than a dollar a day, and access to health care, education, and safe drinking water is difficult or impossible for all but the country's small elite. Women's education key to development However, even in an impoverished society educating women could make a significant contribution to preventing food crises in the future, aid workers say. "Women who have gone to school provide better care, they know how to feed a child and they understand why children should get vaccinations," said Eric Slade, working as an education advisor for aid agency Concern in Niger. "The good side of this crisis is that it has put Niger on the map," he said. "Maybe we can focus on long-term development now." It is no coincidence, point out health workers, that Niger has a very low adult female literacy rate of only nine percent and a very high infant mortality rate. Even in a year of good harvests, one in four children die before the age of five, according to the UN Population Fund. Educated women are more likely to delay or space their pregnancies, so reducing the risk of low birth-weight babies, infant death and infant malnutrition, according to the Mother's Index -- an annual overview of women's health compiled by UK-based NGO Save the Children. Instead, Niger has the highest fertility rate in the world with each woman having on average eight or nine children. Dealing with authoritarian husbands While lack of education is one obstacle to healthier children and proper family planning, authoritarian husbands are another. Rural women often have no say in the matter of birth control, health workers say. In the small town of Diambala, several kilometres north of Tillabery, the local doctor told IRIN that most men are against the use of contraceptives even if their wives would prefer to postpone their pregnancies. "The men are the main problem," said doctor Ousmane Boubacar. "There is a saying: 'Every mouth will be fed by God'. This is what they believe." Of the 5,000 or so women under Boubacar's care, only two or three use modern contraceptives. Frightened of trouble, Boubacar will only administer the monthly hormone injections with the express permission of the women's husbands. "Unfortunately, I have to tell women that they need permission from their husbands," he said. "Otherwise I'll be having angry farmers knocking at my door." Around his clinic, hundreds of women cradling small children had been waiting for hours for a food distribution as it had been rumoured earlier that week that aid was imminent. Sitting in a room adjacent to the doctor's, a busty elderly woman pointed out her daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchild, waiting for the food trucks to arrive. "Our husbands are not working," said 50-year-old Ladi Souley. "The whole family has come to me for help, but it is a big family and my food supplies are not sufficient." Asked if her daughters had ever discussed contraceptives with their respective husbands to limit the size of the family, Souley gave a weary smile. "It's impossible," she said. "Husbands refuse it. A woman risks divorce when she insists on birth control. But men don't understand that life is becoming more and more expensive." IRIN news --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Mon Aug 29 11:51:34 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:51:34 -0700 Subject: [m2c] Women's Global Charter For Humanity presented in Ramallah Message-ID: http://www.radiofeminista.net/agosto05/notas/mujeres_negro4-ing.htm RADIO INTERNACIONAL FEMINISTA/ August 2005 FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RADIO ENDEAVOUR/FIRE 13th International Conference of Women in Black Jerusalem, August 12-16, 2005 "Women Resisting the Occupation and the War" Radio Internacional Feminista/Feminist International Radio Endeavour/FIRE Ramallah, August 15, 2005 Women in Black Participants Join Palestinian Women in Solidarity with Presentation of Global Charter for Humanity & Demonstration Against the Israeli Occupation By Margaret Thompson & Katerina Anfossi Calls for non-violent resistance to Israeli policies and actions both inside and outside Israel and Palestine have been one of the main themes of the 13th International Women in Black Conference in Jerusalem. A record 735 mostly women from 44 countries registered for the conference, which is entitled "Women Resisting War and the Occupation," held August 12-16, 2005. After two days of panels and plenaries on conflict, peace & resistance issues, the international participants traveled to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian women who were not allowed to travel to Jerusalem. A number of the Palestinian women gave their testimonies about the impact of the Israeli occupation on their lives. Afterwards the Women in Black traveled to Bil'in to join Palestinian villagers in a demonstration against the Separation Wall, which will divide their village once construction is finished. In Ramallah, Palestinian women who in some cases had to travel 70 kilometers, met with about 350 peace activists from around the world. Israeli women including some organizers of the conference were not allowed to accompany the women, because it is illegal for them to travel to Palestinian territories. Three of the Palestinian women gave their testimonies about the impact of the Israeli occupation on their lives. One woman talked about her three sons who were serving sentences in Israeli prisons, while another cried as she told the story of her 11 and 15 year old sons were killed by the Israeli military. Another woman described the six years she had just spent in prison, as one of 127 Palestinian women political prisoners. Also at the Ramallah event, the Palestinian women presented the Women's Global Charter For Humanity, which has been passed along on a global relay that was launched by the World March of Women on International Women?s Day 2005. The Charter proposes to build a world where exploitation, oppression, intolerance and exclusion no longer exist and integrity, diversity, and the rights and freedoms of all are respected. Its demands include elimination of poverty and violence against women. The relay began March 8 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and will be passed along to women in 53 countries before concluding in Quagadongou, Burkina Faso on Oct. 17, 2005. Salwa Abu Khadra, who presented the charter at the Ramallah event declared, "More than 600,000 women have marched in order to have this declaration, which is a declaration for all women of the world, asking for equality, justice, and freedom." Many of these women are "struggling against poverty and injustice so I want to say many thanks to all these women who are very brave and courageous and who come from over 50 countries." Many of the Women in Black participants then turned their words into action and joined Palestinian women and girls in the village of Bil'in for a demonstration against the Separation Wall, which as in many Palestinian areas will divide villages and take away land belonging to the Palestinians. Many countries have condemned this vast construction project as a threat to peace rather than a means to increase security as claimed by the Israeli government. During the first two day of the Women in Black conference, participants listened to numerous panels and workshops, focusing on a variety of issues related to women, resistance and conflict. But just outside the event in the streets were nightly marches by large crowds of Israeli settlers and their supporters against the disengagement process in the Gaza Strip. During the settlers? protests in Jerusalem, about 2,000 Palestinians were held by police outside the Old City, not allowed to go to their jobs or in some cases return to their homes. Mainstream international media reports have focused primarily on the protests in Gaza by Israeli settlers and their supporters, which have become increasingly violent. But little attention has focused on efforts by a large number of peace activists among both Israelis and Palestinians to seek a non-violent resolution of the conflict, and a halt to the building of the Separation Wall. The Women in Black conference was timed to coincide with the disengagement process in Gaza, in order to support Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, and to explore parallels of conflict, oppression and resistance in other parts of the world. You may use all or part of this report and photos, but please cite as the source: Radio International Feminista/Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) at: www.radiofeminista.net Photos by: Katerina Anfossi & Margaret Thompson Usted puede utilizar las im?genes, textos y audios, citando la fuente Fuente: Radio Internacional Feminista/www.radiofeminista.net Fotos: Katerina Anfossi y Margaret Thompson --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Mon Aug 29 11:51:34 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:51:34 -0700 Subject: [m2c] European activists hear Palestinian women's woes Message-ID: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/36045301-F8EA-45A5-A939-495349BFD02C. htm Activists hear Palestinians' woes by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank Monday 22 August 2005 7:03 AM GMT Corinna Vicenzi (3rd L): Public opinion can effect change When Corinna Vicenzi and her mostly Italian delegation of about 120 women arrived in the West Bank this week, they expected widespread optimism about the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Instead, what the peace activists witnessed was more roadblocks, a further expansion of Jewish settlements and a giant wall encircling Palestinian population centres and cutting off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. The Women in Black tour is aimed at fostering peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The international peace movement of Women in Black began in January 1988, one month after the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) broke out. Regular vigils were held by a group of Israeli women to protest over the occupation, and soon their idea spread from country to country, wherever women sought to speak out against injustice in their own part of the world. Testimony On Saturday, the Women in Black delegation, which was in Jerusalem for the movement's 13th international conference, visited the southern West Bank town of Hebron. There they heard of the suffering by ordinary Palestinian women whose sons, husbands and other relatives have been killed, maimed or imprisoned by the Israeli occupation army, especially since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000. The mostly Italian delegation, which included a few other European women activists, heard testimony from Sarah Karajeh, president of the local Palestinian women's union, whose husband was killed by undercover Israeli soldiers three years ago. Karajeh, who described the Israeli occupation as "an act of rape", called on women around the world to stand up for justice and not be "deceived by the negative stereotypical images about our people and our cause". "We don't have the means to defend ourselves. And I don't reveal a secret when I say that we essentially rely on the world public opinion, people like you, for our survival. So don't let us down." Tribunal demanded Another Palestinian woman, whose 14-year-old daughter was seriously wounded by a stray bullet fired by an Israeli soldier near the Ibrahim Mosque in downtown Hebron last year, demanded the creation of an independent international tribunal to which Palestinians could go for justice. "Every Palestinian family has been gravely wronged by Israel, and the Israeli justice system doesn't and can't give us true justice. The occupation and justice are after all starkly incompatible." "Hence, we demand the creation of a genuine judicial body to which Palestinians can approach for redress," the woman added. A third Palestinian woman, Sara Abu Sharar, dismissed Israeli claims that repression of Palestinians was a response to "suicide bombings". Abu Sharar said her husband, Salim Safi, died of torture at the hands of Israelis inside a torture cell on 6 January 1971. "There were no suicide bombings then, there was no intifada. Yet, they killed my husband and tormented my family and me personally for many years to come." 'Slow death' Dua'a Takruri, 21, who spoke in English, described the "slow death" being meted out to more than 9000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including her father, Haroun Takruri, who has been behind bars for 20 years for resisting the Israeli occupation. "When I visit my dad, I see him only through double glass. They don't allow any physical contacts. They treat us like animals, and after five minutes, they tell us time is up." Vicenzi described the "separation wall", as Israelis call it (Palestinians call it the apartheid wall) "a totally inhumane structure". "It is something very very remote from anything relating to humanity," she told Aljazeera.net. She added that her group adopted the slogan "The wall must fall". "When we return to Italy, we will communicate to the Italian public everything we have witnessed and encountered." EU lobbying Asked if she would lobby EU political institutions to urge them to take a tougher stand on the wall, Vicenzi said her delegation's priority was to build a grassroots movement in Italy and across Europe to promote peace and justice in Palestine and Israel. "We very strongly believe that a strong public opinion can prompt change provided it has the correct information," Vicenzi said. "This is why we are here." An Austrian member of the delegation, Paula Abrams-Hourani, said it was essential that European peace activists concentrated on the "terrible problem of Palestinian political prisoners, especially children". Assault At the end of the meeting, which took place at the Palestinian University Alumni Union building in downtown Hebron, a Palestinian woman, Nawraz Kawasmi, spoke about the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, saying it was "the fruit of our struggle and sacrifices". "Israel must leave the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the heart of Palestine, and Palestine can't live without her heart" Nawraz Kawasmi, Palestinian woman "It is not a gift from Israelis. It is the price of our blood and sacrifices. This withdrawal is not a solution. Israel must leave the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the heart of Palestine, and Palestine can't live without her heart." After the meeting, the activists toured the old town of Hebron, where Jewish settlers threw stones, eggs and rotten tomatoes at them. Three women were hit in the assault. --------------------- http://www.radiofeminista.net/agosto05/notas/mujeres_negro5-ing.htm RADIO INTERNACIONAL FEMINISTA/ August 2005 FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RADIO ENDEAVOUR/FIRE 13th International Conference of Women in Black Jerusalem, August 12-16, 2005 "Women Resisting the Occupation and the War" Radio Internacional Feminista/Feminist International Radio Endeavour/FIRE Ramallah, August 15, 2005 Issues of Power and Solidarity Raised on Last Day of Conference after Morning Vigil with Palestinian Women at Checkpoint Exhausted but with far greater knowledge and understanding about the intensive conflict and war in Israel and Palestine , many of the 735 mostly women who attended the 13th International Women in Black conference in Jerusalem are committed to returning to their countries to encourage their governments and people to support efforts to seek peace and justice in that Middle East region. A draft declaration presented at the closing session of the conference calls for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and a halt of the construction of the Separation Wall, which winds like an ugly cement snake through Israel and Palestine . And as the Israeli and Palestinian organizers of the conference said farewell, many of them said they feel more energized and hopeful to know that they are not alone in their struggles for peace, to know that their message will be taken to 44 different countries by the women who attended the event. Challenges of Solidarity Work & Power Differences Yvonne Deutsch, an Israeli, talked about the challenges of bringing together Israeli and Palestinian women to organize this conference, when neither group could travel easily to meet with the other. Also, the organizers wanted the event to be a forum for solidarity with the occupation and oppression of Palestinians. But questions about power differences face many activists such as the Women in Black doing solidarity work with others living under repression. Deutsch noted, ?In the case of the relations between Israeli and Palestinian women, how do we conduct solidarity, as women from the occupying society with women of the occupied society? As we come together with our feminist values and priorities on the one hand how do we understand and have empathy for the constrictions of women who live under occupation? [And as an Israeli], although neither I nor my family are taking an active part in the occupation, I belong to the occupying society and that puts a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.? Deutsch continued, ?For the international community, the big question is, what is your role in solidarity? On the one hand, to be a catalyst for change because we here are stuck in this conflict but it is also important to deconstruct colonialist attitudes which are so easy to have. It?s also very important to discuss these differences.? March and Vigil With Palestinian Women at Checkpoint Earlier on the last day of the conference, over 500 Women in Black marched through Al-Ram along the Separation Wall that now divides this Palestinian town. One international activist told FIRE that she had visited this town just a year ago to join local residents in protests against the Wall, and was so shocked because now she could only see half of it because of the Wall. The Wall, which is 25 feet high, prevents Palestinian residents from crossing over to go to school, to the hospital or to jobs and their businesses without going through a security checkpoint, and only if they have permits. The Women in Black marched to the Qalandia Checkpoint north of Jerusalem where they held a vigil to express their opposition the occupation and the Wall, and to express solidarity with local peace activists. Arabiya Mansour explained to FIRE that the purpose of the vigil was to support the Palestinians and to oppose construction of the Wall, because ?it is destroying Palestinian families by separating people who now live together. We are here marching to support them, to bring our voice to the international community, because the international community doesn't don?t do anything about the Wall or the suffering of the Palestinian people.? Aribiya also explained why the Qalandia checkpoint was selected as the site of the Women in Black vigil: ?We are marching here because this will be the main checkpoint [between Jerusalem and the West Bank]. So the most suffering of people will happen here for Palestinians who need to go to the hospital or their jobs or visit relatives. They cannot pass through if a young soldier stands here and says no, so they will make a lot of decisions in the lives of Palestianians. There?s no sense to that.? Meanwhile, on the other side of the checkpoint over 100 Palestinian women also held a vigil, accompanied by several of the Women in Black from different countries who had crossed over to meet them earlier that morning. Women at the vigils on both sides said they could hear each other singing and chanting on the other side. One Palestinian woman was arrested by soldiers who threatened to put her in jail unless the protestors left, and although they refused to leave, the woman was eventually released. Aanchal Kapur of India was with the group who demonstrated on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint. She told FIRE that ?a lot of Palestinian women told us thank you for coming and giving us support and solidarity. That is what I take back to my country, that as women we are there to give strength to each other, particularly in conflict situations.? Final Declaration Calls for an End to the Occupation and Destruction of the Wall The Women in Black draft declaration that was presented during the closing session of the conference calls for an end to the occupation and a halt to the construction of the Separation Wall. Debates will continue via email and with the drafting committee about whether the activists should call for a boycott or sanctions against the Israeli government. The draft declaration will be posted in the near future on the Women in Black website at: www.womeninblack.org/jerusalem.htm. You may use all or part of this report and photos, but please cite as the source: Radio International Feminista/Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) at: www.radiofeminista.net Photos by: Katerina Anfossi & Margaret Thompson --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 30 10:31:09 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:31:09 -0700 Subject: [m2c] "Challenging Imperial Feminism" by Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar (Part 1) Message-ID: I scanned this from "Feminism and 'Race'", edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, where it appears as the first essay. The selections from the original are bhavnani's, but when i have a chance to get a copy of the original essay in feminist review I'll try and post the missing parts. I think most of it is here though. Because my scanner isnt the greatest, there might be spelling errors. also, beause i try and always send things out as text files (to take up less space)the italics get erased, in which case i've placed the words between "*"s. The original source for this is; "From Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar, `Challenging Imperial Feminism', Feminist Review: Many Voices, One Chant No. 17 (Taylor & Francis, 1984), 3-19." Challenging Imperial Feminism By Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar* Our task here is to begin to identify the ways in which a particular tradition, white Eurocentric and Western, has sought to establish itself as the only legitimate feminism in current political practice. [... ] The growth of the Black feminist movement in Britain in the last decade has forced the question of the centrality of Black women's oppression and exploitation onto the political and theoretical agendas. The political energy of Black women who have organized at the grassroots within our communities against the myriad of issues engendered by the racism of the British state has inspired and pointed to the urgent need to challenge many of the theoretical conceptualizations and descriptions of Black and Third World women existing within white feminist literature. [... ] It is our aim in this article to critically examine some of the key theoretical concepts in white feminist literature, and discuss their relevance or otherwise for a discussion and development of Black feminist theory. It would be naive of us to suggest in any way that the white women's movement is a monolithic structure or organization, indeed we recognize that it is a variety of groups with a diversity of interests and perspectives. However, our concern here is to show that white, mainstream feminist theory, be it from the socialist feminist or radical feminist perspective, does not speak to the experiences of Black women and where it attempts to do so it is often from a racist perspective and reasoning. [. . .] Our starting point then is the oppressive nature of the women's movement in Britain both in terms of its practice and the theories which have sought to explain the nature of women's oppression and legitimize the political practices which have developed out of those analyses. In describing the women's movement as oppressive we refer to the experiences of Black and working class women of the movement and the inability of feminist theory to speak to their experience in any meaningful way.1 In arguing that most contemporary feminist theory does not begin to adequately account for the experience of Black women we also have to acknowledge that it is not a simple question of their absence, consequently the task is not one of rendering their visibility. On the contrary we will have to argue that the process of accounting for their historical and contemporary position does, in itself, challenge the use of some of the central categories and assumptions of recent mainstream feminist thought.2 This work has already begun; Black women are not only making history but rewriting it. The publication in recent years of a number of hooks by Black feminists in the US marks the beginning of a systematic documentation of Black women's individual and collective histories. Dominant among these are the rediscovery of ourselves; our place in the Black movement; the boundaries of our sisterhood with white feminists.3 These are important areas for us Black women, for our experience is the shared experience of Black people but it is also the shared experience of women within different class contexts. Our political responses have been and will continue to be shaped by that duality, the range of political options available to us will depend on the social context in which we experience that dualism. To date, the majority of work available by Black women addresses itself to the situation in the USA or to the situation in the Third World countries from which our ancestors are drawn. Although comparisons can be made between Britain and the USA and although it is important to draw on the histories of the communities and countries of the Third World which have contributed to our world view, it is important that Black women in Britain locate their experiences within the context of what is happening to Black people here. There is little recognition in the women's movement of the ways in which the gains made by white women have been and still are at the expense of Black women. Historically white women's sexuality has been constructed in oppositional terms to that of Black women4 and it is to this history that white women refer as their starting point, it is with this history that they seek to come to terms but in an uncritical way - the engagement with it is essentially selective. The 'herstory' which white women use to trace the roots of women's oppression or to justify some form of political practice is an imperial history rooted in the prejudices of colonial and neo-colonial periods, a 'herstory' which suffers the same form of historical amnesia of white male historians, by ignoring the fundamental ways in which white women have benefited from the oppression of Black people. [... ] Thus the perception white middle-class feminists have of what they need liberating from has little or no relevance to the day to day experience of the majority of Black women in Britain and the ways in which they determine the political choices which have to be made. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the oppositional terms in which women's liberation and Black people's liberation has been and still is posed and [... ] this line of reasoning was not only limited to the USA; the movement for female emancipation in Britain was closely linked to theories of racial superiority and Empire. It would appear that although feminists and indeed Marxists invoke the spectre of history/herstory at will in an attempt to locate the articulation of class and gender oppression, at the point at which that very history is called into question and challenges the bases of their analyses there is a curious kind of amnesia. The past is invoked at will, but differentially, to make sense of the range of political options open to socialists and feminists.5 Few white feminists in Britain and elsewhere have elevated the question of racism to the level of primacy, within their practical political activities or in their intellectual work. The women's movement has unquestioningly been premised on a celebration of 'sisterhood' with its implicit assumption that women *qua* women have a necessary basis for unity and solidarity; a sentiment reflected in academic feminist writings which is inevitably influenced by the women's movement and incorporates some of its assumptions. While one tendency has been for Black women to have either remained invisible within feminist scholarship or to have been treated purely as women without any significance attached to our colour and race, another tendency has been the idealization and culturalism of anthropological works. Often we have appeared in cross cultural studies which under the guise of feminist and progressive anthropology, renders us as 'subjects' for 'interesting' and 'exotic' comparison. [... ] By adopting the research methods and frameworks of white male academics much academic feminist writing fails to challenge their assumptions, repeats their racial chauvinism and is consequently of less use to us. One such assumption is that pre-capitalist economies equal backwardness in both a cultural and ideological sense and in fact are responsible for the continued oppression of women in these societies. It is further implied that it is only when Third World women enter into capitalist relations that they will have any hope of liberation: "There can be little doubt that on balance the position of women in imperialist, i.e. advanced capitalist societies is, for all its implications more advanced than in the less developed capitalist and non capitalist societies. In this sense the changes brought by imperialism to Third World societies may, in some circumstances have been historically progressive."6 The above analysis falsely assumes that imperialism necessarily brings capitalist relations and is parallel to the resurgence of development theories in neo-marxist literature that argue that imperialism is progressive for 'underdeveloped' nations.7 Furthermore, when Black and Third World women are being told that imperialism is good for us, it should be of no great surprise to anyone when we reject a feminism which uses Western social and economic systems to judge and make pronouncements about how Third World women can become emancipated. Feminist theories which examine our cultural practices as 'feudal residues' or label us 'traditional', also portray us as politically immature women who need to be versed and schooled in the ethos of Western feminism. They need to be continually challenged, exposed for their racism and denied any legitimacy as authentic feminists. STRENGTH IN DIFFERENCES The failure of the academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. Divide and conquer in our world must become define and empower.8 Many white feminists' failure to acknowledge the differences between themselves and Black and Third World women has contributed to the predominantly Eurocentric and ethnocentric theories of women's oppression. Recently, some white feminist academics have attempted to deal with the question of differences but again this has raised many problems and often perpetuated white feminist supremacy. [... ] Historically, it was not the movement who turned to these women but Black women themselves who instigated the debates on our differences. For instance in America, many Black women were involved in the women's movement from its beginnings, and they struggled to bring home the following to their Black sisters who were pessimistic about the viability of joint political work with white feminists: "The real political and economic advances acquired by women of colour involved in the women's movement more than made up for the very real problems and personal contradictions evident among certain petty bourgeois white women's 'leaders'."9 Black women were also raising the issue of feminism and feminist demands within the Black movement and such questions were continually raised in the civil rights movement well before Black women were engaging in debate within the predominantly white women's movement in the 1960s. [. . .] We now turn to look at three critical areas in which Black women's experience is very different from that of white women: the family, sexuality and the women's peace movement. Each of these areas, in very different ways points to the 'imperial' nature of feminist thought and practice. FAMILY To date socialist feminist theory has sought to harness what is perceived as two strands of women's oppression - class oppression and patriarchal oppression - the one being viewed as the economic basis of relationships, the other, the social or ideological. Attempts have been made to locate patriarchal relations within the social relations of reproduction and these analyses have sought to link the modes of production and reproduction in an attempt to define women's position in a capitalist, patriarchal society. Indeed the complexities of that relationship have been discussed at length but no workable synthesis of the concepts of gender and class has emerged. Patriarchy cannot be viewed only in terms of its relationship to capital and capitalist relations but neither is it merely an analytical tool which explains the oppression of women by men within a range of different economic systems. It is important to go back to the classic definition of patriarchy10 which also encompassed the oppression of younger men by the father. Patriarchy is about gender oppression but it is also about power relations which are not always gender specific. The film "Padre Padroni" amply demonstrates this. A definition of patriarchal relations which looks only at the power of men over women without placing that in a wider political and economic framework has serious consequences for the way in which relationships within the Black community are viewed. Relationships within the Black community are structured by racism and it is a denial of racism and its relationship to patriarchy to posit patriarchal relations as if they were non-contradictory. We would argue that the arguments of radical feminists who see patriarchy as the primary determining feature of women's oppression ignores totally the inapplicability of such a concept in analysing the complex of relations obtaining in the Black communities both historically and at present.11 The family, rightly, has been the object of much debate in the women's movement and has been cited as one of the principal sites of women's oppression - women's role in reproducing the labour force, their supposed dependence on men and the construction of a female identity through notions of domesticity and motherhood have all been challenged. Indeed within that questioning there have been attempts to elevate domestic labour to the same level of analysis as the Marxist analysis of the mode of production and the relations between capital and labour. The family and its role in the construction of a consensual ideology remains central to discussions of feminism. We would question however the ways in which white academics, particularly sociologists and anthropologists, have sought to define the role of Black women in the family. Much work has already been done which shows the ways in which sociology, especially the sociology of 'ethnicity', pathologizes and problematizes the Black communities in Britain. Our concern here is the impact the above analyses have had on Euro-American contemporary feminist thought, particularly socialist feminists. Although it is true to say that some of these feminists have distanced themselves from the crude stereotyping common in such analyses, some stereotypes do stick and they are invariably linked to colonial and historical interpretations of the Black woman's role. The image is of the passive Asian woman subject to oppressive practices within the Asian family with an emphasis on wanting to 'help' Asian women liberate themselves from their role. Or there is the strong, dominant Afro-Caribbean woman, the head of the household who despite her 'strength' is exploited by the 'sexism' which is seen as being a strong feature in relationships between Afro-Caribbean men and women. So although the crude translation of theories of ethnicity which have become part and parcel of the nation's common sense image of Black people12 may not be accepted by many white feminists, they are influenced by the ideas and nowhere is this more apparent than in debates about the family, where there has certainly been a failure to challenge particular pathological ideas about the Black family. There is little or no engagement by white feminists with the contradictions which constitute and shape our role as women in a family context, as sisters, aunts or daughters. For both Black and white women, it is a critical issue which has to be addressed, but in this area of struggle it is Black women who have sought to look critically at the family, its strengths and weaknesses, its advantages and disadvantages, its importance for certain women in class and race terms and all this in the broader context of state harassment and oppression of Black people. [ ... ] White feminists have fallen into the trap of measuring the Black female experience against their own, labelling it as in some way lacking, then looking for ways in which it might be possible to harness the Black women's experience to their own. Comparisons are made with our countries of origin which are said to fundamentally exploit Black women. The hysteria in the Western women's movement surrounding issues like arranged marriages, purdah, female headed households, is often beyond the Black woman's comprehension - being tied to so-called feminist notions of what constitutes good or bad practice in our communities in Britain or the Third World. In rejecting such analyses we would hope to locate the Black family more firmly in the historical experiences of Black people - not in the romantic idealized forms popular with some social anthropologists, and not merely as a tool of analysis. There are serious questions about who has written that history and in what form, questions which have to be addressed before we as Black people use that history as an additional element of our analysis. Black women cannot just throw away their experiences of living in certain types of household organization; they want to use that experience to transform familial relationships. Stereotypes about the Black family have been used by the state to justify particular forms of oppression. The issue of fostering and adoption of Black kids is current: Black families are seen as being 'unfit' for fostering and adoption. Racist immigration legislation has had the effect of separating family members, particularly of the Asian community, but no longer is that legislation made legitimate just by appeals to racist ideologies contained in notions of 'swamping'. Attempts have actually been made by some feminists to justify such legislative practices on the basis of protecting Asian girls from the 'horrors' of the arranged marriage system. White feminists beware - your unquestioning and racist assumptions about the Black family, your critical but uninformed approach to 'Black culture' has found root and in fact informs state practice. [Contd in Part 2] --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 30 10:31:17 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:31:17 -0700 Subject: [m2c] The ultimate war crime: breaking the agricultural cycle Message-ID: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SMI20050827& articleId=870 ORDER 81: Re-engineering Iraqi agriculture The ultimate war crime: breaking the agricultural cycle by Jeremy Smith August 27, 2005 The Ecologist, Vol 35, No. 1, 2005 Under the guise of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally re-engineer the country's traditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. They?ve even created a new law ? Order 81 ? to make sure it happens. [Text of Order 81] http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2004/Iraq-Plant-Variety-Law26apr04.htm Coals to Newcastle. Ice to Eskimos. Tea to China. These are the acts of the ultimate salesmen, wily marketers able to sell even to people with no need to buy. To that list can now be added a new phrase ? Wheat to Iraq. Iraq is part of the ?fertile crescent? of Mesopotamia. It is here, in around 8,500 to 8,000BC, that mankind first domesticated wheat, here that agriculture was born. In recent years however, the birthplace of farming has been in trouble. Wheat production tumbled from 1,236,000 tons in 1995 to just 384,000 tons in 2000. Why this should have happened very much depends on whom you ask. A press release from Headquarters United States Command reports that ?Over the past 10 years, this region has not been able to keep up with Iraq?s wheat demand. During the Saddam Hussein regime, farmers were expected to continuously produce wheat, never leaving their fields fallow. This tactic degraded the soil, leaving few nutrients for the next year?s crop, increasing the chances for crop disease and fungus, and eventually resulting in fewer yields.? For the US military, the blame clearly lies with the ?tactics? of ?Saddam?s regime?. However, in 1997 the UN?s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) found: ?Crop yields... remain low due to poor land preparation as a result of lack of machinery, low use of inputs, deteriorating soil quality and irrigation facilities? and ?The animal population has declined steeply due to severe shortages of feed and vaccines during the embargo years?. Less interested in selling a war perhaps, the FAO sees Iraqi agriculture suffering due to a lack of necessary machinery and inputs, themselves absent as the result of deprivation ?during the embargo years?. Or it could have been simpler still. According to a 2003 USDA report, ?Current total production of major grains is estimated to be down 50 percent from the 1990/91 level. Three years of drought from 1999-2001 significantly reduced production.? Whoever you believe, Iraqi wheat production has collapsed in recent years. The next question then, is how to get it back on its feet. Despite its recent troubles, Iraqi agriculture?s long history means that for the last 10,000 years Iraqi farmers have been naturally selecting wheat varieties that work best with their climate. Each year they have saved seeds from crops that prosper under certain conditions and replanted and cross-pollinated them with others with different strengths the following year, so that the crop continually improves. In 2002, the FAO estimated that 97 per cent of Iraqi farmers used their own saved seed or bought seed from local markets. That there are now over 200,000 known varieties of wheat in the world is down in no small part to the unrecognised work of farmers like these and their informal systems of knowledge sharing and trade. It would be more than reasonable to assume that somewhere amongst the many fields and grainstores of iraq there are samples of strong, indigenous wheat varieties that could be developed and distributed around the country in order to bolster production once more. Likewise, long before Abu Ghraib became the world?s most infamous prison, it was known for housing not inmates, but seeds. In the early 1970s samples of the many varieties used by Iraqi farmers were starting to be saved in the country?s national gene bank, situated in the town of Abu Ghraib. Indeed one of Iraq?s most well known indigenous wheat varieties is called ?Abu Ghraib?. Unfortunately, this vital heritage and knowledge base is now believed lost, the victim of the current campaign and the many years of conflict that preceded it. But there is another viable source. At the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria there are still samples of several Iraqi varieties. As a revealing report by Focus on the Global South and GRAIN comments: ?These comprise the agricultural heritage of Iraq belonging to the Iraqi farmers that ought now to be repatriated.? If Iraq?s new adminstration truly wanted to re-establish Iraqi agriculture for the benefit of the Iraqi people it would seek out the fruits of their knowledge. It could scour the country for successful farms, and if it miraculously found none could bring over the seeds from ICARDA and use those as the basis of a programme designed to give Iraq back the agriculture it once gave the world. The US, however, has decided that, despite 10,000 years practice, Iraqis don ?t know what wheat works best in their own conditions, and would be better off with some new, imported American varieties. Under the guise, therefore, of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally reengineer the country?s traditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. Or, as the aforementioned press release from Headquarters United States Command puts it: ?Multi-National Forces are currently planting seeds for the future of agriculture in the Ninevah Province? First, it is re-educating the farmers. An article in the Land and Livestock Post reveals that thanks to a project undertaken by Texas A&M University?s International Agriculture Office there are now 800 acres of demonstration plots all across Iraq, teaching Iraqi farmers how to grow ?high-yield seed varieties? of crops that include barley, chick peas, lentils ? and wheat. The leaders of the $107 million project have a stated goal of doubling the production of 30,000 Iraqi farms within the first year. After one year, farmers will see soaring production levels. Many will be only too willing to abandon their old ways in favour of the new technologies. Out will go traditional methods. In will come imported American seeds (more than likely GM, as Texas A&M's Agriculture Program considers itself ?a recognised world leader in using biotechnology?). And with the new seeds will come new chemicals ? pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, all sold to the Iraqis by corporations such as Monsanto, Cargill and Dow. Another article, this time in The Business Journal of Phoenix, declares: ?An Arizona agri-research firm is supplying wheat seeds to be used by farmers in Iraq looking to boost their country's homegrown food supplies.? That firm is called the World Wide Wheat Company, and in partnership with three universities (including Texas A&M again) it is to ?provide 1,000 pounds of wheat seeds to be used by Iraqi farmers north of Baghdad.? According to Seedquest (described as the ?central information website for the global seed industry?) WWWC is one of the leaders in developing proprietary varieties of cereal seeds - ie varieties that are owned by a particular company. According to the firm?s website, any ?client? (or farmer as they were once known) wishing to grow one of their seeds, ?pays a licensing fee for each variety?. All of a sudden the donation doesn?t sound so altruistic. WWWC gives the Iraqis some seeds. They get taught how to grow them, shown how much ?better? they are than their seeds, and then told that if they want any more, they have to pay. Another point in one of the articles casts further doubt on American intentions. According to the Business Journal, ?six kinds of wheat seeds were developed for the Iraqi endeavour. Three will be used for farmers to grow wheat that is made into pasta; three seed strains will be for breadmaking.? Pasta? According to the 2001 World Food Programme report on Iraq, ?Dietary habits and preferences included consumption of large quantities and varieties of meat, as well as chicken, pulses, grains, vegetables, fruits and dairy products.? No mention of lasagne. Likewise, a quick check of the Middle Eastern cookbook on my kitchen shelves, while not exclusively Iraqi, reveals a grand total of no pasta dishes listed within it. There can be only two reasons why 50 per cent of the grains being developed are for pasta. One, the US intends to have so many American soldiers and businessmen in Iraq that it is orienting the country?s agriculture around feeding not ?Starving Iraqis? but ?Overfed Americans?. Or, and more likely, because the food was never meant to be eaten inside Iraq at all. Iraqi farmers are to be taught to grow crops for export. Then they can spend the money they earn (after they have paid for next year?s seeds and chemicals) buying food to feed their family. Under the guise of aid, the US has incorporated them into the global economy. What the US is now doing in Iraq has a very significant precedent. The Green Revolution of the 1950s and 60s was to be the new dawn for farmers in the developing world. Just as now in Iraq, Western scientists and corporations arrived clutching new ?wonder crops?, promising peasant farmers that if they planted these new seeds they would soon be rich. The result was somewhat different. As Vandana Shiva writes in Biopiracy ? the plunder of nature and knowledge: ?The miracle varieties displaced the diversity of traditionally grown crops, and through the erosion of diversity the new seeds became a mechanism for introducing and fostering pests. Indigenous varieties are resistant to local pests and diseases. Even if certain diseases occur, some of the strains may be susceptible, but others will have resistance to survive.? Worldwide, thousands of traditional varieties developed over millennia were forsaken in favour of a few new hybrids, all owned by even fewer giant multinationals. As a result, Mexico has lost 80 per cent of its corn varieties since 1930. At least 9,000 varieties of wheat grown in China have been lost since 1949. Then in 1970 in the US, genetic uniformity resulted in the loss of almost a billion dollars worth of maize because 80 per cent of the varieties grown were susceptible to a disease known as ?southern leaf blight?. Overall, the FAO estimates that about 75 per cent of genetic diversity in agricultural crops was lost in the last century. The impact on small farmers worldwide has been devastating. Demanding large sums of capital and high inputs of chemicals, such farming massively favours large scale, industrial farmers. The many millions of dispossessd people in Asia and elsewhere is in large part a result of this inequity. They can?t afford to farm anymore, are driven off their land, either into their cities? slums or across the seas to come knocking at the doors of those who once offered them a poisoned chalice of false hope. What separates the US?s current scheme from those of the Green Revolution is that the earlier ones were, at least in part, the decisions of the elected governments of the countries affected. The Iraqi plan is being imposed on the people of Iraq without them having any say in the matter. Having ousted Saddam, America is now behaving like a despot itself. It has decided what will happen in Iraq and it is doing it, regardless of whether it is what the Iraqi people want. When former Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremer departed Iraq in June 2004 he left behind a legacy of 100 ?Orders? for the restructuring of the Iraqi legal system. Of these orders, one is particularly pertinent to the issue of seeds. Order 81 covers the issues of ?Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety?. It amends Iraq?s original law on patents, created in 1970, and is legally binding unless repealed by a future Iraqi government. The most significant part of Order 81 is a new chapter that it inserts on ?Plant Variety Protection? (PVP). This concerns itself not with the protection of biodiversity, but rather with the protection of the commercial interests of large seed corporations. To qualify for PVP, seeds have to meet the following criteria: they must be ?new, distinct, uniform and stable?. Under the new regulations imposed by Order 81, therefore, the sort of seeds Iraqi farmers are now being encouraged to grow by corporations such as WWWC will be those registered under PVP. On the other hand, it is impossible for the seeds developed by the people of Iraq to meet these criteria. Their seeds are not ?new? as they are the product of millennia of development. Nor are they ?distinct?. The free exchange of seeds practiced for centuries ensures that characteristics are spread and shared across local varieties. And they are the opposite of ?uniform? and ?stable? by the very nature of their biodiversity. They cross-pollinate with other nearby varieties, ensuring they are always changing and always adapting. Cross-pollination is an important issue for another reason. In recent years several farmers have been taken to court for illegally growing a corporation ?s GM seeds. The farmers have argued they were doing so unknowingly, that the seeds must have carried on the wind from a neighbouring farm, for example. They have still been taken to court. This will now apply in Iraq. Under the new rules, if a farmer?s seed can be shown to have been contaminated with one of the PVP registered seeds, he could be fined. He may have been saving his seed for years, maybe even generations, but if it mixes with a seed owned by a corporation and maybe creates a new hybrid, he may face a day in court. Remember that 97 per cent of Iraqi farmers save their seeds. Order 81 also puts paid to that. A new line has been added to the law which reads: ?Farmers shall be prohibited from re-using seeds of protected varieties or any variety mentioned in items 1 and 2 of paragraph (C) of Article 14 of this Chapter.? The other varieties referred to are those that show similar characteristics to the PVP varieties. If a corporation develops a variety resistant to a particular Iraqi pest, and somewhere in Iraq a farmer is growing another variety that does the same, it?s now illegal for him/her to save that seed. It sounds mad, but it?s happened before. A few years back a corporation called SunGene patented a sunflower variety with a very high oleic acid content. It didn?t just patent the genetic structure though, it patented the characteristic. Subsequently SunGene notified other sunflower breeders that should they develop a variety high in oleic acid with would be considered an infringement of the patent. So the Iraqi farmer may have been wowed with the promise of a bumper yield at the end of this year. But unlike before he can?t save his seed for the next. A 10,000-year old tradition has been replaced at a stroke with a contract for hire. Iraqi farmers have been made vassals to American corporations. That they were baking bread for 9,500 years before America existed has no weight when it comes to deciding who owns Iraq?s wheat. Yet for every farmer that stops growing his unique strain of saved seed the world loses another variety, one that might have been useful in times of disease or drought. In short, what America has done is not restructure Iraq?s agriculture, but dismantle it. The people whose forefathers first mastered the domestication of wheat will now have to pay for the privilege of growing it for someone else. And with that the world?s oldest farming heritage will become just another subsidiary link in the vast American supply chain. --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre From sandinista at shaw.ca Tue Aug 30 10:31:13 2005 From: sandinista at shaw.ca (usman x) Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:31:13 -0700 Subject: [m2c] "Challenging Imperial Feminism" by Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar (Part 2) Message-ID: From "Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar, 'Challenging Imperial Feminism', Feminist Review: Many Voices, One Chant No. 17 (Taylor & Francis, 1984), 3-19." as printed in "Feminism and 'Race'", edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani. "Challenging Imperial Feminism" Part 2 SEXUALITY Sexuality has been and continues to be a central issue of discussion and debate within the white women's movement, and much political energy has been spent on understanding and questioning sexuality and sexual oppression: ". . . feminism has thrown up enormous challenges in the whole field of sexuality. We have challenged the 'rights' of men to women's bodies; the compulsory nature of heterosexuality; the stigma and invisibility of lesbianism; the primacy of the nuclear family; rigid gender roles - patriarchal definitions of what is 'natural'; the violence of rape; the exploitation of pornography; sexist imagery and symbolism. Even the importance and priority given to sexual relationships have been questioned."13 While such debates rage virulently amongst white feminists, many Black women have rightly felt that we do not have the 'luxury' of engaging in them in the context of the intense racism of the British state. But the fact that Black women have been peripheral to these debates that have taken place within the women's movement, does not mean that we have not always thought about and discussed these issues with each other. The ways in which we have discussed and prioritized issues around sexuality have differed markedly from white women. [...] As we have increasingly grown confident in our feminism, some of us have begun to look at the area of sexuality in ways that are relevant to us as Black women. The absence of publicly overt debates on and around sexuality by Black women does not mean that such discussions have not been taking place. As illustrated in Brixton Black women's group's analysis of the demise of the Organization of Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD), this was and continues to be one area which has been recognized as an essential element of Black feminist practice and theory. [...] More specifically when challenging heterosexuality as the norm many Black lesbians have had to face the profound homophobia of both Blacks and whites. As Barbara Smith comments when talking about the American situation: "Implicit in our communities' attitudes towards Black lesbians is the notion that they have transgressed both sexual- and racial norms. Despite all the forces with which we must contend, Black women have a strong tradition of sexual self determination."14 Black women's continued challenges to the question of forced sterilization and the use of the contraceptive drug Depo Provera has meant that such campaigns as the National Abortion Campaign have been forced to reassess the relevance of their single issue focus for the majority of working class, Black women, and to change the orientation of their campaigns and actions. [...] It is worthwhile at this point to look back at history and highlight the fact that some of the unquestioned assumptions inherent in contemporary feminist demands have remained the same as those of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century feminists who in the main were pro-imperialist. One strand of early feminism in Britain has its roots in the radical liberal and social purity campaign work of Josephine Butler who drew on religious rhetoric with its notions of purity and impurity, virtue and vice and linked her analysis to aspects of contemporary theories of evolution. Christabel Pankhurst, a leading light at the time, echoed her agreement with the growing eugenic lobby when she said, 'sex powers are given ... as a trust to be used not for ... immorality and debauchery, but ... reverently and in a union based on love for the purpose of carrying on the *race*'.15 While the growth of the birth control movement and birth control information and clinics in the 1920s and 1930s is to be recognized as a crucial gain for women in the fight for control over their own bodies, the grounds on which such a movement gained respectability was not on a woman's right to self-determination but on the grounds of eugenics and health. Marie Stopes was a committed eugenist, and the name of her organization - the Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress - clearly stated her racialist position. The class interest of many such women was revealed when such woman's organizations as the National Society for Equal Citizenship and 'The Woman's Co-operative Guild' supported campaigns to legalize sterilization in the 1930s for certain groups of 'unfit' persons, i.e. working class women. Many suffragists campaigned around slogans such as 'votes for women, chastity for men' and created new spaces for women but their compliance with the development of an ideology of women as mothers and reproducers of the race highlighted their interest in upholding white supremacy. At the beginning of the nineteenth century a healthy and growing population was seen as a national resource and neo-Malthusians alongside eugenists recommended contraception not only as an artificial check on population but also as a means of selective limitation of population growth to prevent the 'deterioration' of the 'race' and decline as an imperial nation through the proliferation of those they regarded as 'unfit' (to breed). It must however be said that there was a small section of women who attempted to counter the Eugenicist movement, such as Stella Brown. In 1958 Charles Kingsley argued that over-population was impossible 'in a country that has the greatest colonial empire that the world has ever seen', and he believed that it was 'a duty, one of the noblest of duties to help the increase of the English race as much as possible'.16 Women were being defined as the breeders of the race, bearing and rearing the next generation of soldiers and workers of the imperial race. Within this context developed a new definition of women's role and the pressures which led to the formation of an ideology of motherhood: "In many cases the terms in which reforms to do with marriage, child rearing and bearing were proposed also involved reference to the nation, the empire, or the race ..." 17 White feminists have attacked this for its oppressiveness to them but not on the grounds of race and anti-imperialism. Such a development of an ideology of women as mothers duty bound to reproduce for the race went alongside the development of an imagery of them as vulnerable creatures who needed protection not only at home but also in the colonies. There are historical counterparts of contemporary white male use of the image of vulnerable and defenceless white women being raped and mugged by Black men, images which are reinforced by racist ideologies of black sexuality. Also in responding to the use of physical violence to control white women's sexuality white feminists have singularly failed to see how physical violence to control the sexuality of Black men is a feature of our history (e.g. lynching). This has implications for analyses and campaigning around sexual violence. Historically, there are many instances of how white women's vulnerability to physical violence from men has been used to bring in oppressive legislation which justified an extension of police and state powers, with oppressive results for both men and women in countries under colonial rule. For instance in 1926 a White Women's Protection Ordinance was passed in Papua (New Guinea), then under British rule, which introduced the death penalty for the crime of rape or attempted rape of any European female. The 'Black Peril', or the fear that 'native men', who were seen as endowed with 'strong sex instincts' particularly for white women, were going around in their hordes raping white women, was the background to this severe legislation. In fact there was little proof that this was happening. Not only were there double standards for white men, who, far from being penalized for having sexual relationships with local Black women, were in fact encouraged to 'satisfy' their 'natural' desires; but furthermore Black women's experiences and vulnerability to male violence was judged to be of little consequence. "Doubtless there are native women who set the highest value on their chastity, but they are the exception and *the rape of an ordinary native women does not present any element of comparison with the rape of a respectable white woman* even where the offence upon the latter is committed by one of her own race and colour."18 The racist ideology that black and immigrant men are the chief perpetrators of violent crimes against women permeates not only the racist media fed regularly by police 'revelations' of 'racial' crime statistics as in 1982 but also sections of the white women's liberation movement as illustrated by their actions and sometimes their inaction. For example, the compliance of many white feminists with the racist media and the police is shown in their silence when public hysteria is periodically whipped up through images of white women as innocent victims of black rapists and muggers. When white feminists have called for safer streets, and curfew of men at nights they have not distanced themselves from the link that exists in common sense racist thinking between street crime and Black people. Again, when women marched through Black inner city areas to 'Reclaim the Night' they played into the hands of the racist media and the fascist organizations, some of whom immediately formed vigilante groups patrolling the streets 'protecting' innocent white women by beating up black men. Therefore we would agree that 'any talk of male violence that does not emphatically reject the idea that race or colour is relevant automatically reinforces these racist images'.19 Black women's sexuality has been used in various oppressive ways throughout imperialist history. For instance, during slavery women were forced to breed a slave labour force, raped, assaulted and experimented on; practices that still continue today under 'scientific' and sophisticated guises. For Asian women, one such historical example of control over them was in the form of the Contagious Diseases Act passed in India in 1868. Throughout the nineteenth century the British military in India was only concerned with maintaining an efficient and 'healthy' army who had 'natural' sexual desires which needed to be fulfilled. Prostitution was encouraged and local Indian women were either taken on as 'mistresses' or regularly visited in the brothels both within and outside of the cantonments. Such practices were so widespread that venereal disease increased rapidly. What the Act did was call for compulsory registration of brothels and prostitutes and periodic medical examinations and compulsory treatment of such 'diseases'. The soldiers were not required to do this. This is just one example of state regulation of prostitutes which was a result of imperialist policies which required the maintenance of huge and 'healthy' armies.20 In identifying the institution of the family as a source of oppression for women, white feminists have again revealed their cultural and racial myopia, because for Asian women in particular, the British state through its immigration legislation has done all it can to destroy the Asian family by separating husbands from wives, wives from husbands and parents from children. But while many Black feminists would agree that the ideology of mother/wife roles is oppressive to women and that marriage only serves to reinforce and institutionalize that oppression, in a political climate where the state is demanding proof of the 'genuine' nature of 'arranged marriages' as a blatant attack on Asian culture, and Asian people's right to enter this country, we demand the right to choose and struggle around the issue of family oppression ourselves, within our communities without state intervention, and without white feminists making judgments as to the oppressive nature of arranged marriages. Many white feminists have argued that as feminists they find it very difficult to accept arranged marriages which they see as reactionary. Our argument is that it is not up to them to accept or reject arranged marriages but up to us to challenge, accept or reform, depending on our various perspectives, on our own terms and in our own culturally specific ways. NUCLEAR POWER ON THE NORTH LONDON LINE With the setting up of the Greenham Common Women's Peace camp in 1981, world attention has focused on the women's peace movement in Britain. Thousands of women have identified the threat of a nuclear war as a priority issue to organize around. While some feminists have sought to distance themselves from women peace activists who have fallen into the trap of elevating the feminine nature of women with its stress on mothering and nurturing, finding its organized manifestation in groups such as the Families against the Bomb and Babies against the Bomb, other problems remain.21 The women's peace movement is and continues to remain largely white and middle-class because yet again their actions and demands have excluded any understanding of or sensitivity to Black and Third World women's situations. Black women's political priorities have not been to organize around the siting of American cruise missiles at Greenham or to focus on the disarmament campaigns. This has been inevitable given the implicit and often explicit nationalist sentiments of its campaigns as much as the overall framework within which they have addressed these questions. The patriotic cries of 'We want to protect our country' which extend both to the mixed left anti-nuclear groups as much as sections of the women's peace movement is not one with which many Black people seek to or want to identify with, particularly when we know that we are not recognized or accepted as legitimate and equal inhabitants of this island and are continuously fighting for our right to be here. The parochial concerns of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the women's peace movement are manifest in their unwillingness to take up any international issues. Why, for instance, are they not exposing, campaigning and mobilizing against Britain's role in illegal mining of uranium in Namibia for fuel for its Trident submarines? Why are connections not being made with people in the Pacific who are fighting for land rights? Why is there continued silence and inaction on the war going on in Britain's own 'backyard', Northern Ireland? Why is it that some white women who have sought to involve Black women in their peace campaigns at Greenham can only include them by asking them to service them yet again and play the role of caterers? It is inevitable that such questions and issues do not feature on the agendas of either the women's peace movement or the CND, because both these movements are imbued with the uncritical acceptance of the concept of 'the nation', in particular the 'British nation'. Their failure to distance themselves or be critical of anti-Americanism prevalent in public opinion which supports nuclear arms but opposes American nuclear arms is a result of their deep-seated and entrenched patriotism. In Britain, there is not a single social or political institution that has not been fundamentally affected by the ideology of Empire and its corollary of British superiority. [...] The slogan 'Yanks out' and 'Yankees go home' has been widely adopted by many women peace activists and is an illustration of racism arising out of a confusion of collapsing the American state with individual Americans. An example of such a tactic is an incident witnessed recently when a group of white, middle-class women began to shout and chant `Yanks out' and `Yankee go home' at a Black American soldier walking through the train carriage they were sitting in. To some of the Black women present this was reminiscent of 'Blacks go home' and 'wogs out'. When confronted with the racism of their action one woman justified their actions by saying that in an individual situation, such confrontations are necessary and legitimate. Necessary and legitimate to whom? [...] Internationally, while Black and Third World women are fighting daily battles for survival, for food, land and water, western white women's cries of anguish for concern about preserving the standards of life for their children and preserving the planet for future generations sound hollow. Whose standards of life are they fighting to preserve? - white, middle-class standards undoubtedly. Recently, Madhu Kishwar, an Indian feminist, came to speak to the Women For Life on Earth and she stressed that what is needed is a realization that: "A movement for disarmament begins with a movement against the use of guns, the everyday weapons. Here (in Britain) you may have a fear of a nuclear holocaust and death and destruction - in India millions die of water pollution - that is a more deadly weapon for women in India. I think it is very important that nuclear piles be made targets for political action, but we have to begin with confronting the guns and the dandas (sticks) that is disarmament for us."22 [...] In saying that as Black women we have sought not to prioritize our political energies on organizing around 'peace' and disarmament, does not in any way mean we do not consider these as crucial political issues. Indeed, the arms race is fundamentally political and the complexities of the new cold war and the increasing drive for American global supremacy are crucial questions of importance which concern us all. But, it is only when Western peace activists, be they male or female, begin to broaden the parameters of their campaigns and integrate an international perspective within their frameworks, will there be a radical shift away from the predominantly white composition of these movements. CONCLUSION For us the way forward lies in defining a feminism which is significantly different to the dominant trends in the women's liberation movement. We have sought to define the boundaries of our sisterhood with white feminists and in so doing have been critical not only of their theories but also of their practice. True feminist theory and practice entails an understanding of imperialism and a critical engagement with challenging racism - elements which the current women's movement significantly lacks, but which are intrinsic to Black feminism. We are creating our own forms and content. As Black women we have to look at our history and at our experiences at the hands of a racist British state. We have to look at the crucial question of how we organize in order that we address ourselves to the totality of our oppression. For us there is no choice. We cannot simply prioritize one aspect of our oppression to the exclusion of others, as the realities of our day to day lives make it imperative for us to consider the simultaneous nature of our oppression and exploitation. Only a synthesis of class, race, gender and sexuality can lead us forward, as these form the matrix of Black women's lives. Black feminism as a distinct body of theory and practice is in the process of development and debate both here in Britain and internationally and has begun to make significant contribution to other movements of liberation, as well as challenging the oppression and exploitation of Black women. Notes l. Some attempts have been made to look at both racism and feminism. For example, Jenny Bourne in her essay 'Towards an Anti-Racist Feminism', Race and Class, 25 (Summer 1983), 1-22, attempts to locate anti-racist practice within a (white) feminist context. However, Jenny Bourne's essay fails adequately to address contemporary debates within feminism and ignores the contribution of black feminists to the broader debate around issues of racism, feminism, class and sexuality. 2. Hazel Carby, 'White Women Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood', in Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (eds.), "The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain" (London: Hutchison, 1982). 3. Gail Lewis and Pratibha Parmar, 'Review Essay of American Black Feminist Literature', Race and Class, 25 (Autumn L983). 4. Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (London: The Women's Press, 1982); Veronica Ware, 'Imperialism, Racism and Violence Against Women', "Emergency", 1 (Winter 1983/4). 5. There have been a range of debates around socialism and feminism which have ignored the issue of race. See for example, Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, "Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism" (London: Merlin, 1979), and Lydia Sargent (ed.), "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism" (London: Pluto, 1981), which has only one essay on `The Incompatible Menage a Trois'. 6. Maxine Molyneux, 'Socialist Societies Old and New: Progress Towards Women's Emancipation', "Feminist Review", 8 (1981), 1-34. 7. Bill Warren, "Imperialism, Pioneer of Capitalism" (London: New Left Books, 1980); for critique see A. Sivanandan, 'Capitalism, Highest Stage of Imperialism. Warren and the Third World', "Race and Class," 24 (1982). 8. Audre Lorde (ed.), "Sister Outsider" (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984). 9. Manning Marabel, "How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America" (New York: Southend Press, 1983). 10. See Michele Barrett, "Women's Oppression Today Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis" (London: Verso, 1980). 11. See Christine Delphy, "The Main Enemy: a Materialist Analysis of Women's Oppression" (London: Women's Research and Resources Centre Publications, 1977). 12. See Errol Lawrence, 'Just Plain Common sense: the "Roots" of racism', in centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (eds.), The Empire Strikes Back, 47-94. 13. Sue Cartledge and Joanna Ryan, "Sex and Love, New Thoughts on Old Contradictions" (London: The Women's Press, 1983). 14. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith (eds.), "All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave" (New York: Feminist Press, 1982). 15. Lucy Bland, `Purity, Motherhood, Pleasure or Threat', in Cartledge and Ryan, "Sex and Love." Emphasis added. 16. Anna Davin, 'Imperialism and Motherhood', "History Workshop Journal," 5 (Spring 1978). 17. Ibid. 18. Ware, `Imperialism, Racism and Violence Against Women'. 19. Ibid. 20. Kenneth Ballhatchett, "Race, Sex and Class Under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and Policies 1793-1905" (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980). 21. Radical Feminist Papers, "Breaching the Peace, Collection of Radical Feminist Papers" (London: Onlywomen Press, 1984). 22. Madhu Kishwar, Interview, "Outwrite," 22 (February 1984). --------------------- Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (lied about the world, lied about me) that you have ended by imposing on me an image of myself. underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That ?s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What's more, it's a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, and I know myself as well. - Caliban, in Aime Cesaire's "The Tempest" http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/margins-to-centre